Stokes' England have shown us all that this great game is supposed to be enjoyment.

Few recall the concluding moment of the Ashes. That initial ball that's legendary. That errant delivery that reaches the slip cordon, that cover drive for four, that wicket, shattering the stumps! Concluding moments? I had to look them up. Moeen Ali edging a shot behind to finish an innings loss in a meaningless match in 2015; Boyd Rankin being taken at slip off Ryan Harris, Rankin participating in his sole Test at the conclusion of a 30-over collapse in a 5-0 whitewash that's been plentiful in 2014; a Harmison bouncer deflecting off Langer's shoulder for runs, the single four the Australian team manage in a pursuit they'll never get to make in 2005.

It distinguishes between questioning how things will go, and seeing how they do. One undeniable fact, there's no certainty there will be a successful conclusion. For the previous decade, England's trips Down Under have finished in defeat, as opposed to with them. Flower was dismissed as head coach after one humiliating defeat, in 2013-14, Silverwood was sacked after another, in 2021-22. One could assemble a pair of XIs out of national team members who played their last Test match at the back end of an tour to Australia during the last quarter-century, and even have a couple of men over to carry the drinks for either side.

The current English side have never claimed to care too much about results. Ben Stokes, like Morgan with the ODI squad before him, frequently remarks that regardless of whether a lifted stroke is taken at the rope matters less as if it was the proper call to attempt it in the beginning, and while fielding he's quick to praise a bowler who allows scoring shots so long as they bringing the team closer to taking that following breakthrough. But then the very reason Ben Stokes tried to guide his players to play this way was so they would be in a superior situation to deliver the kind of cricket he thinks will perform effectively for them in Australia.

This Ashes series, for which they have been planning extensively, already seems like the outcome they cannot escape. It is this aggressive approach's critical moment. And there are numerous warnings of defeat in English cricket for the team to avoid backlash if they do experience another disappointing result in the coming weeks. His methodology has been based on challenging skeptics, and the flipside is it appears there are plenty of people who would be thrilled to be shown right.

In light of this, it's a appropriate time to highlight that the important question goes beyond where this concludes, but if we enjoyed it along the way. A few years back, England were an utterly abject cricket team. They had been beaten in four straight contests and were lagging in the final one, against the Indian team, when it was postponed because of the pandemic. They had won exactly one Test match out of seventeen, and lost a dozen of them by embarrassing margins. A loss by eight wickets to New Zealand at Edgbaston, A 157-run loss to India at the the London ground, an a comprehensive loss to the Australians at Melbourne, A defeat by ten wickets to the Windies in the island nation.

The English side was routed by the Caribbean team in Grenada in March 2022 just before Joe Root resigned as captain.

By the final stage, after all those months of testing and preventive measures and controlled settings and repeated losses at the hands of each rival, they were practically the most disheartened and exhausted Test team the English cricket board had ever sent out to a sports ground. So much of what Stokes and McCullum have achieved in the following period was in a consequence of all that, as well as the former's individual trials during his time away from the game in 2021 when he had endured a bout of anxiety. It was intended to emphasize to all that it was meant to be entertaining, if it was supposed to be something.

This continues to be the case now. Even when the the prestigious contest is on the line, and although the team have ultimately accepted that they need to be a somewhat adaptable in the way they tackle competing. Everyday life has a way of imposing, it can be difficult to retain the insights we gain in our most difficult periods.

Presented is the national side that peeled off back-to-back run chases of 277, 299, and 296 in one season against New Zealand; that scored a massive 378 to defeat the Indian team that corresponding period; that became the pioneering away squad to win a clean sweep in Pakistan; that showed resilience to a draw after going 2-0 down in the the contest; that overcame India in the historic venue off the back of one of the most remarkable knocks ever performed in the subcontinent, and then beat the Pakistani team in Multan off the back of a subsequent one.

It is the English squad, too, that somehow end up suffering a defeat in a Test by an innings defeat even though the rivals made a modest 326; who concluded being defeated in one of the finer contests ever contested after making a cocksure declaration in the initial batting effort against the Kiwis, and then did the same thing against the Aussies; who were routed by a massive 434 runs in the venue, and who were on the wrong end of one of Sri Lanka's greatest victories. Collectively, they have achieved some of the most improbable victories, suffered some of the most embarrassing exits, scored some of the surprising hundreds, and secured some of the most surprising exceptional bowling spells in the annals of English cricket.

No matter how this historic contest concludes, they have been, successively, amazing, outrageous, unconventional, infuriating, and totally, unrepentantly, unashamedly thrilling.