Stokes' England have reminded the world that the sport of cricket is meant to be enjoyment.

Nobody talks about the final delivery of the Ashes. The opening delivery that's renowned. That stray ball that flies to slip, that cover drive for four, that wicket, shattering the stumps! Final deliveries? I had to research them. Ali slicing a drive behind to conclude a batting effort defeat in a dead rubber in 2015; Rankin being grabbed by the slip fielder off Harris, Boyd Rankin featuring in his sole Test at the fag-end of a rapid downfall in a comprehensive defeat that's been plentiful in 2014; a Harmison bouncer glancing off Langer's shoulder for extras, the only four Australia manage in a pursuit they'll never get to make in 2005.

It distinguishes between questioning how things will go, and understanding how they do. One certainty is, there's no guarantee there will be a successful conclusion. For the past ten years, the English visits to Australia have ended in ashes, rather than with them. Andy Flower was removed as coach after a crushing loss, in 2013-14, Chris Silverwood was sacked after a further defeat, 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 back end of an tour to Australia during the previous 25 years, and still have a few players over to act as substitutes for each squad.

This England team have not asserted to care too much about results. Stokes, like Eoin Morgan with the limited-overs team before him, always says that if a lofted drive is caught on the boundary is secondary as if it was the proper call to attempt it in the beginning, and in the field he's quick to praise a pitcher who allows scoring shots so long as they are bringing the team closer to taking that next wicket. But then the primary motive 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 succeed for them in Australia.

The forthcoming contest, for which they have been preparing for so long, already appears as the conclusion they cannot escape. It is Bazball's make or break moment. And there are an abundance of “I told you so’s” in English cricket for the team to avoid backlash if they do experience another bad defeat in the coming weeks. Stokes's approach has been founded on defying expectations, and the flipside is it feels as if there are plenty of people who would be pleased to be shown right.

In light of this, it's a suitable occasion to emphasize that the crucial matter is not only where this all ends up, but if we enjoyed it along the way. Four years ago, England were an utterly abject national side. They had been overcome in a quartet of successive tournaments and were falling behind in the fifth one, against India, when it was halted because of the pandemic. They had won exactly one Test match out of 17, and lost twelve of them by humiliating deficits. An eight-wicket defeat to the Kiwis at Edgbaston, 157 runs to the Indian squad at the the famous stadium, an a comprehensive loss to the Aussie team at the iconic ground, 10 wickets to the Caribbean side in the scenic location.

The English side was routed by the Caribbean team in the island in the early part of 2022 just before Joe Root stepped down as skipper.

By the conclusion, after all those stretches of health protocols and isolation and restricted environments and constant defeats at the hands of each rival, they were practically the most miserable and careworn Test team England had ever put on to a cricket field. So much of what Stokes and McCullum have accomplished in the years since was in reaction to all that, as well as the Stokes' experiences during his hiatus from the game in 2021 when he had suffered a bout of anxiety. It was designed to remind everyone that it was meant to be enjoyable, if it was intended as anything at all.

It still is now. Even when the the historic series is on the line, and regardless if the team have finally recognized that they need to be a somewhat adaptable in the way they go about competing. Daily routines has a way of crowding in, it can be difficult to hold on to the insights we gain in our lowest moments.

Here is the English squad that secured successive run chases of significant totals in one period against the Kiwis; that achieved 378 to beat the Indian team that identical season; that became the initial visiting side to win a clean sweep in the host nation; that showed resilience to a draw after going trailing by two matches in the the contest; that beat the Indian team in the southern city off the back of one of the most remarkable knocks ever performed in the the area, and then overcame Pakistan in the location off the back of another.

This is the England team, too, that managed to end up suffering a defeat in a Test by an innings defeat even though the opposition made a modest 326; who concluded suffering a loss in one of the finer contests ever played after making a bold declaration in the first innings against the Kiwis, and then followed suit against the Australian team; who were soundly beaten by a huge margin in the venue, and who were on the wrong end of one of Sri Lanka's greatest victories. Between them, they have secured some of the most improbable victories, experienced some of the poorest performances, scored some of the surprising hundreds, and achieved some of the most surprising five-wicket hauls in the annals of the English game.

However this prestigious tournament unfolds, they have been, in turn, incredible, unbelievable, absurd, infuriating, and entirely, unapologetically, unapologetically enjoyable.