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Nobody talks about the concluding moment of the Ashes. The opening delivery that's famous. That wide that reaches the slip cordon, that elegant shot for four, that wicket, clean bowled! Last balls? I needed to check. Ali slicing a drive behind to end an innings defeat in a dead rubber in 2015; Rankin being caught in the slips off Ryan Harris, Rankin participating in his sole Test at the fag-end of a rapid downfall in a clean sweep that's been plentiful in 2014; a Harmison bouncer glancing off Justin Langer's shoulder for four leg byes, the sole boundary the Aussies achieve in a target they'll not undertake in 2005.

It distinguishes between speculating how things will go, and knowing how they do. One thing's certain, there's no assurance there will be a happy ending. For the last decade, England's Australian tours have ended in ashes, rather than with them. Flower was dismissed as coach after one humiliating defeat, in 2013-14, Silverwood was sacked after another, in 2021-22. It's possible to form a couple of teams out of England players who featured in their final Test match at the conclusion of an Australian tour during the past 25 years, and additionally have a few players over to serve as reserves for each squad.

This England team have not asserted to care too much about results. Ben Stokes, like Morgan with the one-day side before him, frequently remarks that regardless of whether a lofted drive is grabbed near the fence isn't as important as if it was the right decision to attempt it in the beginning, and in the field he's happy to clap a bowler who allows scoring shots so long as they bringing the team toward taking that subsequent dismissal. But then the primary motive Stokes tried to teach his team to follow this style was so they would be in a more advantageous state to execute the style of play he believes will do well for them in Australia.

This Ashes series, for which they have been training rigorously, already appears as the outcome they can't get away from. It is this aggressive approach's decisive moment. And there are too many warnings of defeat in the English game for the team to get away with it if they do endure a further bad defeat in the upcoming period. The captain's strategy has been founded on proving everyone wrong, and the other side is it feels as if there are plenty of people who would be pleased to be proven correct.

Considering this, it's a good moment to emphasize that the key issue isn't just where this concludes, but whether or not we enjoyed it along the way. In the recent past, the English team were an thoroughly poor sports team. They had been overcome in four consecutive series and were trailing in the fifth one, against India, when it was suspended because of the pandemic. They had won only one Test match out of a series of 17, and lost twelve of them by embarrassing margins. An eight-wicket defeat to the Kiwis at the historic venue, A defeat by 157 runs to India at the the famous stadium, an a comprehensive loss to the Aussie team at Melbourne, A defeat by ten wickets to West Indies in the island nation.

The team was soundly beaten by West Indies in the island in the early part of 2022 just before Joe Root stepped aside as skipper.

By the final stage, after all those stretches of nasal swabs and preventive measures and restricted environments and constant defeats at the hands of each rival, they were virtually the most miserable and exhausted Test team England had ever sent out to a sports ground. A great deal of what Stokes and McCullum have achieved in the subsequent years was in a consequence of all that, as well as the Stokes' individual trials during his time away from the game in 2021 when he had endured a series of panic attacks. It was intended to remind everyone that it was supposed to be enjoyable, if it was intended as anything.

It still is now. Even when the Ashes is on the line, and although the team have ultimately accepted that they need to be a slightly versatile in the way they approach performing. Everyday life has a way of intruding, it can be challenging to retain the lessons we learn in our lowest moments.

This is the national side that peeled off consecutive run chases of 277, 299, and 296 in one summer against the Kiwis; that scored a huge total to defeat the subcontinent giants that corresponding period; that became the pioneering away squad to win a clean sweep in the host nation; that showed resilience to a stalemate after going trailing by two matches in the the contest; that overcame the Indian team in the southern city off the back of one of the greatest innings ever executed in the subcontinent, and then defeated the Pakistani team in the location off the back of a further exceptional performance.

It is the England team, too, that managed to end up losing a Test by an large margin even though the opposition made a modest 326; who concluded losing one of the more exciting matches ever played after making a confident decision in the first innings against the Black Caps, and then repeated the action against the Aussies; who were routed by a huge margin in the Indian city, and who were on the unsuccessful part of one of the Sri Lankan team's greatest victories. Collectively, they have achieved some of the unlikeliest wins, experienced some of the poorest performances, scored some of the surprising hundreds, and achieved some of the most surprising exceptional bowling spells in the annals of English cricket.

Regardless of how this Ashes series concludes, they have been, successively, incredible, outrageous, ridiculous, frustrating, and entirely, without regret, unashamedly enjoyable.