Ben Stokes' team have reminded us all that cricket is all about enjoyment.

Few recall the final delivery of the Ashes. The opening delivery that's famous. That wide that reaches the slip cordon, that elegant shot for four, that dismissal, bowled him! Concluding moments? I needed to check. Ali edging a shot behind to end an innings defeat in a meaningless match in 2015; Rankin being caught in the slips off Ryan Harris, Rankin featuring in his sole Test at the conclusion of a 30-over collapse in a 5-0 whitewash that's been full of them in 2014; a Harmison bouncer ricocheting away Langer's shoulder for four leg byes, the single four the Australian team score in a run chase they'll not undertake in 2005.

It separates between questioning how things will go, and knowing how they do. One undeniable fact, there's no certainty there will be a happy ending. For the previous decade, England's Australian tours have ended in ashes, instead of with them. Andy Flower was removed as head coach after an embarrassing rout, in 2013-14, Silverwood was let go after a further defeat, in 2021-22. You can make a couple of teams out of national team members who featured in their final Test match at the back end of an Australian tour during the past 25 years, and additionally have a couple of men over to act as substitutes for both teams.

The current English side have not professed to care too much about outcomes. Ben Stokes, like Eoin Morgan with the limited-overs team before him, consistently states that whether or not a aerial shot is grabbed near the fence is secondary as whether or not it was the right decision to execute it in the first place, and in the field he's pleased to applaud a bowler who gives away boundaries so long as they bringing the team nearer to taking that subsequent dismissal. But then the very reason Stokes tried to teach his team to follow this style was so they would be in a superior situation to produce the style of play he believes will do well for them in Australia.

The forthcoming contest, for which they have been preparing for so long, already seems like the conclusion they are bound to face. It is this aggressive approach's make or break moment. And there are too many predictions of failure 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 predicated on proving everyone wrong, and the other side is it appears there are numerous observers who would be delighted to be proven correct.

In light of this, it's a appropriate time to emphasize that the key issue isn't just where this all ends up, but regardless of whether we had fun along the way. Four years ago, the English team were an completely dismal sports team. They had been defeated in four consecutive series and were lagging in the fifth, against India, when it was postponed because of Covid. They had won only one Test match out of a series of 17, and lost 12 of them by humiliating deficits. Eight wickets to the Black Caps at the historic venue, A 157-run loss to India at the the famous stadium, an an innings defeat to Australia at Melbourne, A ten-wicket loss to the Caribbean side in Grenada.

England were thrashed by the Windies in the island in March 2022 just before Joe Root stepped down as skipper.

By the final stage, after all those months of nasal swabs and social distancing and restricted environments and constant defeats at the hands of each rival, they were virtually the most disheartened and careworn Test team England had ever fielded to a sports ground. So much of what Ben Stokes and Brendon McCullum have done in the years since was in reaction 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 intended to remind everyone that it was intended as enjoyable, if it was supposed to be something.

That remains true now. Even when the the prestigious contest is on the line, and regardless if the team have ultimately accepted that they need to be a slightly versatile in the way they tackle performing. Daily routines has a way of intruding, it can be difficult to remember the lessons we learn in our lowest moments.

This is the England team that peeled off back-to-back fourth-innings chases of 277, 299, and 296 in one summer against New Zealand; that scored a huge total to defeat India that identical season; that became the initial visiting side to win a clean sweep in Pakistan; that showed resilience to a tie after going trailing by two matches in the Ashes; that overcame India in the historic venue off the back of one of the finest batting displays ever played in the the region, and then defeated the Pakistani team in Multan off the back of a further exceptional performance.

Here we have the England team, too, that somehow end up being defeated in a Test by an innings even though the rivals made a relatively low total; who concluded suffering a loss in one of the finer contests ever played after making a bold declaration in the initial batting effort against New Zealand, and then repeated the action against the Australian team; who were thrashed by a massive 434 runs in Rajkot, and who were on the unsuccessful part of one of the island nation's greatest victories. Collectively, they have achieved some of the unlikeliest wins, endured some of the most embarrassing exits, scored some of the most improbable hundreds, and taken some of the most startling exceptional bowling spells in the annals of the national sport.

However this prestigious tournament unfolds, they have been, one after another, incredible, preposterous, unconventional, frustrating, and completely, unrepentantly, unapologetically entertaining.