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People rarely mention the last ball of the Ashes. The opening delivery that's famous. That stray ball that reaches the slip cordon, that elegant shot for four, that fallen stump, shattering the stumps! Last balls? I needed to check. Moeen Ali edging a shot behind to end an innings loss in a dead rubber in 2015; Rankin being taken at slip off Ryan Harris, Rankin featuring in his one and only Test at the conclusion of a quick disintegration in a comprehensive defeat that's been plentiful in 2014; a Harmison short ball glancing off Justin Langer's shoulder for four leg byes, the single four Australia manage in a run chase they'll never get to make in 2005.

It distinguishes between questioning how things will go, and knowing how they do. One thing's certain, there's no assurance there will be a positive outcome. For the previous decade, England's Australian tours have ended in ashes, instead of with them. Andy Flower was dismissed as coach after an embarrassing rout, in 2013-14, Silverwood lost his after another, in 2021-22. It's possible to form a couple of teams out of England players who played their last Test match at the conclusion of an Australian tour during the last quarter-century, and still have a few players over to carry the drinks for each squad.

Stokes' squad have not asserted to worry excessively about consequences. Ben Stokes, like Morgan with the one-day side before him, always says that if a lofted drive is grabbed near the fence matters less as if it was the proper call to execute it in the beginning, and in the field he's quick to praise a bowler who gives away boundaries so long as they help bring the team nearer to taking that next wicket. But then the primary motive Ben Stokes tried to guide his players to follow this style was so they would be in a superior situation to produce the kind of cricket he feels will do well for them in Australia.

This Ashes series, for which they have been planning extensively, already seems like the result they can't get away from. It is this bold strategy's critical moment. And there are too many warnings of defeat in the English game for the team to avoid backlash if they do endure a further disappointing result in the upcoming period. Stokes's approach has been predicated on challenging skeptics, and the counterpart is it appears there are many individuals who would be thrilled to be validated.

Given that, it's a good moment to highlight that the important question isn't just where this all ends up, but regardless of whether we found pleasure along the way. Four years ago, England were an completely dismal national side. They had been beaten in four consecutive series and were falling behind in the fifth one, against the Indian team, when it was suspended because of the virus. They had won exactly one Test match out of 17, and lost 12 of them by large defeats. An eight-wicket defeat to the Kiwis at the Birmingham ground, A 157-run loss to the Indian squad at the the London ground, an a comprehensive loss to Australia at the MCG, A defeat by ten wickets to the Windies in the scenic location.

The English side was routed by West Indies in the island in March 2022 just before Root resigned as skipper.

By the final stage, after all those months of testing and social distancing and restricted environments and endless beatings at the hands of everyone they played, they were virtually the most dejected and weary Test team England had ever fielded to a playing arena. So much of what Ben Stokes and Brendon McCullum have accomplished in the years since was in response to all that, as well as the Stokes' individual trials during his time away from the game in 2021 when he had endured a bout of anxiety. It was intended to remind everyone that it was intended as enjoyable, if it was intended as anything at all.

It still is now. Even when the Ashes is on the line, and even if the team have ultimately accepted that they need to be a slightly versatile in the way they go about performing. Daily routines has a way of intruding, it can be hard to hold on to the insights we gain in our most difficult periods.

Presented is the England team that secured consecutive final innings pursuits of significant totals in one period against New Zealand; that achieved a huge total to defeat India that corresponding period; that became the pioneering away squad to win a comprehensive victory in Pakistan; that showed resilience to a tie after going two games behind in the the contest; that defeated the Indian team in the southern city off the back of one of the greatest innings ever performed in the the area, and then beat the Pakistani team in the city off the back of another.

Here we have the English squad, too, that unexpectedly end up being defeated in a Test by an innings defeat even though the opposition made only 326; who ended up suffering a loss in one of the better Tests ever contested after making a bold declaration in the opening session against New Zealand, and then repeated the action against Australia; who were routed by 434 runs in the Indian city, and who were on the wrong end of one of Sri Lanka's finest wins. Between them, they have secured some of the unlikeliest wins, experienced some of the poorest performances, scored some of the most improbable hundreds, and taken some of the most surprising exceptional bowling spells in the records of the national sport.

However this prestigious tournament shakes out, they have been, in turn, incredible, preposterous, absurd, frustrating, and completely, unrepentantly, unashamedly enjoyable.