Stokes' England have reminded the world that cricket is meant to be fun.

Few recall the last ball of the Ashes. That initial ball that's famous. That errant delivery that flies to slip, that elegant shot for four, that fallen stump, bowled him! Last balls? I had to look them up. Moeen Ali edging a shot behind to finish an innings defeat in a dead rubber in 2015; Boyd Rankin being caught in the slips off Ryan Harris, Rankin participating in his single Test at the tail-end of a quick disintegration in a 5-0 whitewash that's been full of them in 2014; a Steve Harmison rising delivery deflecting off Justin Langer's shoulder for runs, the sole boundary the Aussies manage in a target they'll not undertake in 2005.

It's the difference between wondering how things will go, and understanding how they do. One thing's certain, there's no certainty there will be a happy ending. For the past ten years, England's Australian tours have finished in defeat, rather than with them. Flower was dismissed as head coach after a crushing loss, in 2013-14, Chris Silverwood lost his after a subsequent one, in 2021-22. It's possible to form a two lineups out of national team members who participated in their concluding Test match at the conclusion of an Australian tour during the last quarter-century, and additionally have a couple of men over to carry the drinks for either side.

Stokes' squad have not asserted to be overly concerned about outcomes. Stokes, like Morgan with the one-day side before him, always says that regardless of whether a lofted drive is grabbed near the fence isn't as important as whether it was the correct choice to play it in the first place, and during play he's pleased to applaud a bowler who gives away boundaries so long as they help bring the team nearer to taking that following breakthrough. But then the key rationale Stokes tried to instruct his squad to adopt this approach was so they would be in a superior situation to execute the kind of cricket he thinks will perform effectively for them in Australia.

The forthcoming contest, for which they have been planning extensively, already feels like the conclusion they cannot escape. It is this bold strategy's decisive moment. And there are numerous predictions of failure in the national sport for the team to get away with it if they do endure a further disappointing result in the next few weeks. His methodology has been based on challenging skeptics, and the other side is it feels as if there are numerous observers who would be thrilled to be shown right.

Considering this, it's a appropriate time to point out that the important question isn't just where this concludes, but whether or not we had fun along the way. In the recent past, the English team were an thoroughly poor sports team. They had been defeated in a quartet of successive tournaments and were trailing in the fifth one, against the Indian team, when it was halted because of the virus. They had won a single Test match out of 17, and lost twelve of them by large defeats. A loss by eight wickets to the Black Caps at the historic venue, 157 runs to the Indian squad at the the London ground, an an innings defeat to the Australians at Melbourne, 10 wickets to West Indies in the scenic location.

England were thrashed by West Indies in the island in March 2022 just before Joe Root stepped down as leader.

By the final stage, after all those months of health protocols and social distancing and controlled settings and endless beatings at the hands of each rival, they were virtually the most disheartened and weary Test team England had ever fielded to a playing arena. So much of what Stokes and McCullum have done in the years since was in response to all that, as well as the Stokes' experiences during his time away from the game in 2021 when he had endured a bout of anxiety. It was designed to make people recall that it was intended as enjoyable, if it was meant to be anything at all.

It still is now. Despite when the the historic series is on the line, and regardless if the team have eventually come to agree that they need to be a slightly versatile in the way they go about competing. Daily routines has a way of imposing, it can be difficult to hold on to the insights we gain in our most difficult periods.

Here is the national side that achieved successive fourth-innings chases of three challenging targets in one summer against New Zealand; that scored 378 to defeat India that same summer; that became the first touring team to win a whitewash in Pakistan; that showed resilience to a draw after going 2-0 down in the Ashes; that beat the Indian team in the southern city off the back of one of the most remarkable knocks ever played in the the region, and then defeated Pakistan in Multan off the back of another.

It is the English squad, too, that unexpectedly end up suffering a defeat in a Test by an large margin even though the rivals made a modest 326; who ended up being defeated in one of the finer contests ever staged after making a bold 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 Rajkot, and who were on the unsuccessful part of one of Sri Lanka's finest wins. Collectively, they have recorded some of the surprising successes, experienced some of the most embarrassing exits, made some of the unlikeliest tons, and achieved some of the most startling exceptional bowling spells in the history of the national sport.

Regardless of how this historic contest shakes out, they have been, in turn, amazing, unbelievable, ridiculous, exasperating, and totally, without regret, boldly thrilling.