Opening-round play at the Asian Tour's Panasonic Open in India was delayed for five hours because of "toxic smog," leading some players to wear anti-pollution masks once play began.

Areas in and around the Indian capital of New Delhi have been affected in recent days by the smog, which builds each winter as a byproduct of traffic fumes, industrial emissions and smoke from agricultural fires. Some schools have been closed as a result, and officials are rationing the amount of cars that can be on the road at a given time based on vehicle registration numbers.

According to an AFP report, tournament organizers opted to delay play at Classic Golf and Country Club because of "poor visibility and weather conditions," and initially considered shortening the event.

Once play began, multiple players opted to wear face masks to protect themselves from deadly PM2.5 particles, which can enter the lungs and bloodstream and whose levels have reportedly reached more than 20 times the safe limit set by the World Health Organization.

One of those players was Thailand's Itthipat Buranatanyarat, who took a two-shot lead after shooting an 8-under 64.

"I just needed to wear a mask, and apart from that it was business as usual," he told reporters. "I managed to play well despite everything and I'm very proud of myself."

Two-time World Cup winner Megan Rapinoe has said she hopes for more investment in the women's domestic league and better pay for club players as well as for the national sides.

Earlier this month, the U.S. National Women's Soccer League (NWSL) announced new compensation guidelines for 2020, including a nearly 20% increase in the overall salary cap as well as allocation money allowing teams to invest in some players above the maximum salary.

- Why Rapinoe's brother Brian is her greatest heartbreak, and hope

However, the funds cannot be used to pay players who are members of the U.S. and Canadian national teams, a move that Rapinoe, a standout for the NWSL's Reign FC, criticised.

"We need to sit down and have more substantive conversations about what that looks like," Rapinoe told Reuters when asked about the allocated fund provisions. "It's going to be a necessary step before the NWSL gets going next year."

The NWSL could not immediately respond to a request for comment.

With a trial date set for May for the U.S. women's national team's gender discrimination lawsuit against their governing body, the squad faces the possibility of a Summer Olympics training schedule clouded by legal issues.

Rapinoe has emerged as a spokesperson for gender equality in sport after the United States' World Cup victory in France this year.

In addition to her outspoken criticism of U.S. President Donald Trump, she also serves as the face of a Budweiser advertising campaign that debuted in the run-up to the NWSL championship last month.

While attendances in the league increased to an average of 7,337 per game in 2019, Rapinoe said she is frustrated by the progress made.

"More resources need to be put into the front office of the NWSL," Rapinoe, who has said she would like to compete in the 2023 World Cup before she hangs up her boots, added.

As for her plans after she retires, the 34-year-old said she is focused on creating a pathway toward a role in the business of the NWSL, and is an advocate for a rumoured expansion team in Sacramento, or perhaps even Los Angeles.

"I'd be a great owner," Rapinoe said. "I want to own one of these teams.

"If the only thing that's said about us is how inspiring we are to little girls, then our marketing plan is a complete and utter failure. Make me want to go to the game."

Thierry Henry has been named the head coach of Major League Soccer's Montreal Impact on a two-year contract.

Henry, who has previously worked as an assistant for the Belgium national team and as Monaco coach, ended his playing career with the New York Red Bulls in 2014.

"It's an honor to become head coach of the Montreal Impact and return to MLS," Henry said. "It's a league that I know well where I had a great time.

"Being in Quebec, in Montreal, which has a huge multicultural heritage, is something extraordinary. I have always had an eye on this club and now I am there."

Henry won two Premier League titles in England with Arsenal and won La Liga, the Champions League and the FIFA Club World Cup with Barcelona.

During his four and a half seasons in MLS, Henry scored 51 goals in 122 games and set up 42.

He was selected on the league Best XI three times and featured in four MLS All-Star Games.

Montreal has become something of a manager's graveyard within the confines of MLS. The Impact have burned through six previous coaches -- including caretaker manager Wilmer Cabrera -- during their eight seasons in MLS. The team has posted a winning record only twice in its history, and finished with 12 wins, 17 losses and 5 draws in 2019.

Owner Joey Saputo has long had a reputation for meddling in the affairs of his managers, going so far as to make postgame visits to the locker room if he didn't like what he saw on the field. But Henry's stature in the world of soccer may be just what is needed for Saputo to back off.

And unlike most foreign managers in MLS, Henry's time with the New York Red Bulls will make him well aware of the arcane roster rules and salary limitations that the league imposes. The Frenchman knows what he's getting into.

Whether Henry has the patience to manage players far less talented than he was remains an open question. His time in Monaco was littered with reports of his airing his frustrations about his players, with Aleksandr Golovin revealing how Henry would jump into training if his players weren't practicing well.

Henry was fired after just three and a half months in charge, winning just four games.

India 86 for 1 (Pujara 43*, Agarwal 37*) trail Bangladesh 150 (Mushfiqur 43, Shami 3-27) by 64 runs

It's weird. For someone who has like the most amazing seam position, Mohammed Shami with the old ball looks way, way, waaaay better than Mohammed Shami with the new ball. And if you're not convinced, see what he did to Mushfiqur Rahim in Indore. It was pure poetry and that's without getting into how it took out Bangladesh's top-scorer and sent them crashing to 150 all out.

The game had just ticked past 50 overs, somewhere near the time reverse swing comes into play. India had already dismissed half the opposition and Bangladesh were just trying to make the best of a bad situation. All hopes of doing that vanished when Shami came for his fourth spell. For some reason he decided to go wide of the crease. The ball kissed the good length but it was so far away from the off stump that Mushfiqur was preparing to leave it altogether. Then it swung in. Sharply. Quickly. Violently. The batsman had no chance. Especially because, in that same over, Shami was moving the ball conventionally away from the right-hander. How can you prepare for that? #AskingForAFriend..

India finished the day only 64 runs behind, with Rohit Sharma out for 6 but Mayank Agarwal and Cheteshwar Pujara fairly dominant.

No plan survives contact with the enemy. Mushfiqur's was swing. For the rest of his team-mates, it was, well, mostly themselves. Bangladesh had won a good toss. Their captain Mominul Haque had made a brave call to bat first. The pitch had enough grass cover to make India pick three seamers, all of whom have improved so much since the start of their careers that Virat Kohli now commands one of the best bowling attacks in history. Still, the visitors backed themselves to put runs on the board because that's what you do in the subcontinent. And in short phases of their innings, they showed they were capable of it.

Mominul was the best of them, walking in with the score 12 for 1, seeing it become 12 for 2 and reviving it until it was a much healthier 99 for 3. He didn't really do much to pull off that recovery. It was just careful Test-match batting, playing close to the body, leaving as much as he could outside off stump and most importantly using soft hands as much as possible. His openers failed to do that.

Imrul Kayes was caught at third slip off Umesh Yadav for 6, Shadman Islam was sucked in by a full and wide delivery from Ishant Sharma and it was hard not to think about Tamim Iqbal and Shakib Al Hasan. One of them could have helped Bangladesh withstand the early pressure from India, the other might have counterattacked and the contest would have been even.

It still was for a little period in the lead up to and then after the lunch break. Mominul had steadied the ship, scoring 37 off 80 balls, all of his six boundaries coming behind the wicket as he lured India into bowling at his body and to his strengths. That is why it was so bizarre when he left a straight ball and got bowled.

R Ashwin was responsible for that little misjudgment; the India offspinner had snuck onto the Bangladesh vessel, all whistling and innocent-like, and gently elbowed their captain overboard. It was his 250th wicket in 42 Tests at home. He had been lovely to watch on a pitch that offered him nothing. His control in the air - varying the flight of the ball - his tricks - getting one to spin and the other to hold its line - and that sixth sense of when to bowl what were all on show. On a better day, when Ajinkya Rahane doesn't drop three catches off his bowling, Ashwin would have got more than 2 for 43.

It was the 19th time in the last two years that India had bowled out an opposition for a sub-200 total. Their bowlers are relentless. They stay patient. They have a variety of skills. They can out-think batsmen. They're a threat no matter the condition of the ball. Heck, they take wickets even when they're fielding down at deep fine leg as Ravindra Jadeja proved with a pin-point throw that led to Taijul Islam's run-out. It was a day for the bowling coach B Arun to sit back and revel in a job well done.

Haseeb Hameed, the opener released by Lancashire less than three years after starring in his debut Test series for England in India, has signed for Nottinghamshire on a two-year deal.

Hameed attracted interest from several counties - including Worcestershire - after his release but the lure of Trent Bridge and the opportunity to work with Peter Moores has seen him sign a deal with Nottinghamshire, despite their relegation to Division Two of the County Championship.

"I'm very excited to be joining Nottinghamshire and playing my cricket at Trent Bridge," Hameed said. "I've enjoyed myself every time I've played at this great venue and hope to add to some good memories there.

"This is a new chapter in both my life and career and I'm full of excitement to start working with my new teammates and helping get Notts back up to Division One where they belong.

"I want to thank Lancashire for the support they've provided over the years and to my teammates, whom I've shared a dressing room with. A special mention to Mick Newell and Peter Moores at Notts for believing in me - I can't wait to get started."

Hameed - still only 22 - enjoyed a breakthrough season for Lancashire in 2016, when he hit 1198 runs in Division One of the County Championship, including an innings of 122 at Trent Bridge against a Notts attack including Stuart Broad, Harry Gurney and Imran Tahir.

His impressive run tally - as well as his temperament and his ability against the turning ball - won him a spot on England's winter tours, and he made two fifties in six innings in the 2016-17 series in India, scoring 82 on debut in Rajkot and an unbeaten 59 - with a broken finger - in Mohali.

But his form disintegrated dramatically over the next three years. He lost his place for the 2017 home Test summer, as his average in the Championship dipped to 28.50, and the following year he made 165 runs at 9.70. He started the 2019 season with an impressive 117 in an early-season Championship game at Lord's - having also scored 218 against Loughborough MCCU - but it proved a false dawn, and he only passed 50 once after that innings.

The theories behind Hameed's loss of form are plentiful. Some suggest that his technique changed game-by-game with several different coaches competing to make changes, while others claim that he lost his judgement outside off stump after being brought into Lancashire's limited-overs teams. Other note that his record again seam bowlers was never outstanding - at least not in comparison to against spin.

His release from Lancashire came as something of a surprise, despite regular public criticism from director of cricket Paul Allott. At the start of the 2019 season, Allott told Wisden Cricket Monthly that Hameed was "hanging on by his fingertips" at the club.

"He's got six months left on a contract, and he's not scored a run for two years," he said. "Not only is he a million miles away from England, he's hanging on by his fingertips at Lancashire."

Hameed will hope that a change of scene, and a chance to work with one of the most respected coaches on the county circuit, can reinvigorate his career.

"There's no doubting Haseeb's talent," Moores said. "It doesn't get much tougher than Test cricket in India and he proved over there, at a very young age, that he has all the skill, temperament and patience to succeed at the highest level.

"He's enjoyed some more difficult times since then, and that's going to happen with young players, but the ones that are destined for great things bounce back and move their games on again.

"We believe that's what's going to happen with Haseeb and it's great news for Notts that we can be the ones to benefit from that."

Toss: Afghanistan chose to bowl v West Indies

The coin fell Rashid Khan's way after a delayed toss, and the Afghanistan captain had no hesitation in bowling first in the first T20I on a true pitch at the Ekana Stadium in Lucknow. There was an even spread of grass which was expected to help the ball come on to the bat, and with dew likely later on, it made bowling first a straightforward decision.

Afghanistan are looking to bounce back from a 3-0 sweep in the ODIs, and Rashid said he was confident of a better show in what he described as the team's "strongest" format.

"Looks to me a fresh wicket, let's see how it goes," Rashid said. "It's the format we are famous for, but we have to keep being positive. The T20 World Cup is coming up, so we have to build towards that."

West Indies captain Kieron Pollard had several fresh faces in his side, as did Rashid, with the change in format necessitating a change in personnel. One of the changes for West Indies was a forced one though, with Nicholas Pooran banned for four T20Is after being found guilty of attempting to change the condition of the ball during third ODI.

"It's a process, and a new series for us," Pollard said. "New guys have joined us from the Caribbean. The conditions are different but the basics remain the same. It's just a matter of getting acclimatised and getting back in the cricket zone."

The toss was delayed by 30 minutes due to a novel reason: insect repellent that had been sprayed on the field hung in the air due to the lack of wind, and everyone had to wait for the haze to clear. That meant the start of the match was also pushed back by 15 minutes.

West Indies: 1 Brandon King, 2 Evin Lewis, 3 Shimron Hetmyer, 4 Denesh Ramdin (wk), 5 Kieron Pollard (capt), 6 Sherfane Rutherford, 7 Fabian Allen, 8 Jason Holder, 9 Kesrick Williams, 10 Hayden Walsh, 11 Sheldon Cottrell

Afghanistan: 1 Hazratullah Zazai, 2 Asghar Afghan, 3 Ibrahim Zadran, 4 Najibullah Zadran, 5 Rahmanullah Gurbaz (wk), 6 Mohammad Nabi, 7 Gulbadin Naib, 8 Rashid Khan (capt), 9 Fareed Malik, 10 Naveen ul Haq, 11 Mujeeb Ur Rahman

Former India captain Rahul Dravid has been cleared of conflict of interest charges by the BCCI ethics officer Justice (retd.) DK Jain. Justice Jain issued the order on Thursday after conducting two hearings in response to a complaint filed by Sanjeev Gupta, a life member of the Madhya Pradesh Cricket Association (MPCA).

Gupta had alleged that Dravid, who was appointed the director of the National Cricket Academy (NCA) this July by the BCCI, was guilty of conflict of interest because he was occupying more than one post at the time, which was not permitted as per the board's rules. The second post that Dravid was serving, Gupta said in his complaint, was as vice-president of India Cements Pvt. Ltd, which he claimed had ties with the Chennai Super Kings franchise in the IPL.

However, in his order, Justice Jain said "a case of conflict" against Dravid could not be made and hence he had "dismissed" the complaint because it was "bereft of merit."

More to follow...

It has been 18 months since the New York Knicks hired David Fizdale, a move the organization was convinced would usher in the start of a new era.

This time, the team believed, it would be different than all their past failings. This time there was a vision, a plan and alignment from ownership through the front office on how to execute it.

Things have gone wrong again, and in new ways. Here's a look back at another Knicks false start in their own words.

May 8, 2018: Fizdale's introductory news conference

Knicks president Steve Mills: "I think we've seen how things can go wrong. And I've seen a lot of mistakes ... and ... not the right patience in terms of trying to build things the right way. This whole notion that in New York, you have to win yesterday. And we're about winning, but we're about creating something where we can win for a sustained period of time. ... And I think you've seen a lot of shortcuts and swinging for the fences, trying to hit home runs all the time. And [owner] Jim Dolan has given us the room to try to do it differently."

• Mills and general manager Scott Perry interviewed 11 coaching candidates. After the disaster that was Phil Jackson's tenure as team president, with Derek Fisher and Jeff Hornacek as coaches, Fizdale was their choice. The new message was that the Knicks would finally be patient, although in truth they continued to think of themselves as a free-agent destination.

Perry: "As we went through the search, we called a number of current and former NBA players, a number of coaches and front-office executives from around the league. Some common themes came from those conversations. He's a tireless worker, innovative basketball mind, someone who connects with people and working with people, someone who holds others accountable. All of those qualities led to David sitting here today."

• This was coded language. In part, the Knicks wanted Fizdale because they believed he connected with star players and could attract free agents. When Fizdale was fired as coach of the Memphis Grizzlies, LeBron James, Dwyane Wade and Damian Lillard were among those who stepped forward with outrage. The Knicks noticed. As for Fizdale, he turned down the chance at several other jobs to get a four-year, $22 million deal plus the chance to coach Kristaps Porzingis after he recovered from a torn ACL.

Fizdale: "The best way to describe [Porzingis] is he's the future of the NBA. He fits all the qualities of a megastar and a guy who can propel a franchise forward."

Oct. 15, 2018: Porzingis doesn't get contract extension

Mills: "We've been very straightforward in our communication with KP's brother [agent Janis Porzingis]. KP has a long history with us. One thing about my relationship with KP is if he's unhappy about something or disappointed about something, he's been very forthright about coming to me ... He's been very excited about the players, the young players we have. I watch him every day at shootaround and practice and how engaged he's been with his teammates. I think we're in a good place."

• By waiting to sign Porzingis, the Knicks kept cap space open for a max contract player. But it also kept the door open for Porzingis to leave sooner by trade or as a restricted free agent.

Nov. 8, 2018 and Jan. 23, 2019: Porzingis "doing some light running" and "engaged"

Fizdale on Nov. 8, 2018: "I'm not even planning on KP at all. ... He's doing some light running. Sprinting ... he's not at that level yet."

• Within hours, Porzingis posted photos of himself sprinting on Instagram.

David Fizdale said Kristaps Porzingis is still only jogging lightly

But the #Knicks star took to Instagram to try to prove he's able to do more than that ?https://t.co/lrme35SLiY @SBondyNYDN pic.twitter.com/psOjv8alZ3

— NY Daily News Sports (@NYDNSports) November 9, 2018

Fizdale on Jan. 23, 2019: "[Porzingis] has been around, engaged with us. He's still participating, fighting for us, texting, everything. Because he knows he can help us."

• Fizdale was attempting to quell rumors that Porzingis was frustrated by the slow timetable on his return to the court.

Jan. 31, 2019: Porzingis traded to Dallas

Mills: "Over time, it became clear to us that Kristaps was not on board with the plan that we had laid out. He's a great player but this morning in a meeting he confirmed that he no longer wanted to be a Knick. ... We feel like we did the right thing. When you think about how you're trying to build your team for the long term, you don't want to commit a max [contract] to a player who says he doesn't want to be here. ... We feel good about the deal. We believe we haven't reset our plans. We did the things that were consistent with our plan. A byproduct of what we did was create $68 million worth of [cap] room."

• This was a stunning trade. That morning, Porzingis and his brother met with Perry and Mills. The meeting lasted only five minutes and Porzingis made it known he didn't want to re-sign with the Knicks and wanted to be traded immediately. The Knicks were informed if they didn't trade him by the trade deadline a week later, he'd leave the team and go to Spain, where he'd done his rehab the previous summer.

• However, this didn't seem to blindside the Knicks too much. The night before with the Mavericks in town, Perry and Dallas general manager Donnie Nelson met in person and hammered out the framework of a possible Porzingis trade. While the Knicks got prospect Dennis Smith Jr. and two first-round draft picks, the team loudly touted the deal would clear enough cap space for two max salary slots the following summer.

March 13 and April 3, 2019: The Dolan interview and the letter

Dolan on March 13: "New York is the mecca of basketball. We hear from people, from players, from representatives about who wants to come. From what we've heard, I think we're going to have a very successful offseason when it comes to free agency."

• Dolan made a rare media appearance (The Michael Kay Show on ESPN New York) to explain why he had banned a fan who had taunted him at Madison Square Garden.

• Beyond the whiff of tampering, this was a bold statement that implied the Knicks had some level of assurance they would land multiple major free agents. Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving, free agents known to have wanted to play together, immediately came to mind as the targets that would precipitate the Porzingis move to clear so much cap space.

• The Knicks had struck out often in free agency -- they couldn't even get a formal meeting with Durant when he was last a free agent in 2016 -- so this strategy seemed either totally reckless or uncharacteristically shrewd. The twinkle in Dolan's eye as he bragged about what was to come sent Knicks fans into a tizzy.

Mills and Perry in a letter on April 3: "We can honestly say that the future of the New York Knicks is extremely bright. ... We have created a tremendous amount of financial flexibility, which has put us in a position to potentially sign up to two max free agents. We will continue to focus on the draft in an attempt to replicate the type of players we added last summer. Most importantly, we will use our cap space diligently and only on players who believe in our plan and are committed to building the New York Knicks into the championship team that you deserve."

• With the Knicks wheezing to the finish line of a 17-win season, this was part of a letter sent to season-ticket holders near the end of the season.

May 18, 2019: Zion Williamson and Anthony Davis

Mills shortly after the draft lottery: "We know we'll get a good player at [No.] 3. So it's something we're excited about and look forward to. We want to build this team the right way. We've always said we're going to continue to work hard during the draft process. We believe we're a team that can draft well and this is all part of our plan and growing our team."

• Despite the NBA's worst record at 17-65, the Knicks got the No. 3 pick in the draft lottery rather than the payoff they were hoping for -- No. 1 pick Zion Williamson, a great prospect to keep or a potential key asset to trade for New Orleans Pelicans superstar Anthony Davis.

• Unlike other major stars recently, Davis had expressed interest in playing for the Knicks. But Mills and Perry told people they were turned off by the Pelicans' high asking price of multiple first-round picks plus multiple young players, even though the Knicks had that type of package thanks to their Porzingis trade. They said it would have undercut their long-range plan of building through the draft and developing picks into stars.

June 30, 2019: Disaster

Mills in a statement: "While we understand that some Knicks fans could be disappointed with tonight's news, we continue to be upbeat and confident in our plans to rebuild the Knicks to compete for championships in the future, through both the draft and targeted free agents."

• Before free agency officially opened the Knicks had egg on their face. Durant and Irving were teaming up in New York ... to play for the Brooklyn Nets. Other top free agents showed little or no interest in the Knicks.

• Mills issued this statement apologizing to the fans because they'd missed on all their top targets. The Knicks ended up using their cap space to sign seven free agents, all of them with track records as role players and four of whom were primarily power forwards.

Sept. 30, 2019: Media day

Mills: "Free agency is a process that there's certain parts of it you can't control. We had a plan in place, we had a roster that we thought we could end up with. ... Jim [Dolan] knew we were going to have a successful free-agency period, and we feel like we did that. He was on board with what we were doing and one of the rosters that he saw well in advance of free agency looks like one we're going to put out on the floor this year. There were a lot of max-type players that we could have met with that were interested in coming here. We had a certain way we wanted to build this team and this is how we chose to build it."

• By training camp, Mills and the Knicks had made a hard pivot. They did, they said, have a good free agency after all.

• ESPN reported the team didn't even plan to make Durant a max contract offer because of his Achilles injury.

• Las Vegas set the Knicks' over/under at 27.5 wins.

Oct. 8, 2019: Durant's burn

Durant: "It's hard to get the best players to play [for the Knicks]. I think a lot of fans look at the Knicks as a brand and expect these younger players who, in their lifetime, don't remember the Knicks being good. I saw the Knicks in the Finals, but the kids coming up after me didn't see that. So, that whole brand of the Knicks, to them, is not as cool to them as, say, a Golden State Warriors or even the Lakers or the Nets now. The cool thing right now is not the Knicks."

• This interview (on Hot 97 radio in New York) belied the optimism that Dolan and the Knicks had displayed early in 2019. Durant said he had considered the Knicks at one point and that it was tough to not hear about a possible move to the Knicks during the year before his free agency, as it was a constant topic of conversation.

Nov. 10, 2019: The postgame news conference

Mills: "We just felt like given that this is our 10th game, we felt that we had an obligation to come and speak to [the media]. Obviously, Scott and I are not happy with where we are right now. We think the team is not performing to the level that we anticipated or we expected to perform at, and that's something that we think we collectively have to do a better job of delivering the product on the floor that we said we would do at the start of this season. ... We still believe in our coaching staff. We believe in the plan Scott and I put together and the players that we assembled. But we also have to acknowledge that we haven't played at the level we expected to play at."

• It's practically unheard of for a team's front office to hold a news conference immediately after a game, and it was seen as a very public attempt to shift the blame for the early season struggles onto Fizdale. ESPN's Adrian Wojnarowski and Malika Andrews reported that Mills had already started to lay the internal groundwork for the eventual dismissal of Fizdale.

• At 2-8 (now 2-9), the Knicks had the NBA's worst offense, the worst 3-point shooting and a poor defensive rating. Two players, Smith and Reggie Bullock, had experienced deaths in their families and missed multiple games (Bullock, who is also returning from surgery, has yet to play this season), which had affected the team in the early going. So had injuries to starters Mitchell Robinson and Elfrid Payton.

• Rookie RJ Barrett has shown flashes as a potential building block. But with a mismatched roster, Fizdale has struggled to find lineups that can work efficiently or shoot consistently.

• Now, as the Knicks welcome Porzingis and the Mavs to Madison Square Garden on Thursday, and as players express support for Fizdale, the franchise finds itself with an coach undermined by its own front office. Stay tuned.

Cody Bellinger, who damn near broke the Los Angeles Dodgers' home run record this season, managed only one home run as a high school senior. Alex Bregman, who belted 41 homers despite also leading his sport in walks, never once reached double-digit home runs in college. Mike Trout, on a faster home run pace for his career than all but four players, went deep every 49 at-bats in the minor leagues. Christian Yelich, who has required only 277 games to produce 80 home runs for the Milwaukee Brewers, was typecast as a slap hitter as he neared his mid-20s.

Major league baseball is immersed in the most prodigious home run era of its history, a remarkable circumstance for a sport once tainted by prevalent steroid use. Pitchers are throwing harder than ever and aggressive defensive shifts are commonplace, so hitters are looking to lift, looking to pull and, mostly, looking to slug. The 2019 season, dominated by theories about juiced baseballs, produced 6,776 home runs, blowing past the previous record of 6,105, set only two years earlier.

Bellinger, Bregman, Trout and Yelich are products of that environment. But they're more than that -- they're what happens when naturally gifted hitters evolve through a time defined by the long ball.

See, it's not that they couldn't hit home runs before; it's that they didn't care enough to. They were more concerned with the subtleties that produce great hitters, like controlling the strike zone, honing their opposite-field power and consistently meeting the baseball with the barrel of their bat. Their power wasn't yet prevalent enough for home runs to result from all that.

Bellinger, Bregman, Trout and Yelich are now four of the game's most complete hitters. They made up four of the top five spots in weighted runs created plus this past season, and on Thursday, they're each expected to finish in the top two in Most Valuable Player voting for their respective leagues.

What follows is a look at each player's path toward the most elusive part of his game -- the home run.

Cody Bellinger

Cody Bellinger was always young and always small for the level at which he played. He was already scrawny before growing 8 inches during his junior year of high school, shooting from 5-foot-8 to 6-foot-4. When the Dodgers made him their fourth-round pick in 2013, he weighed no more than 165 pounds. His frame was expanding too quickly. His metabolism was working too efficiently.

"He would eat and eat and eat, and he would never gain," Bellinger's father, Clay, said. "That's just the way it was -- it's genetics."

Clay, a former utility player who spent three seasons with the New York Yankees, could relate. He had the same body type when he graduated high school, then added weight later and grew stronger. He knew the same would happen for his son, and that with it, the power would ultimately emerge; those line drives Bellinger kept sending into the outfield gaps would begin to travel over the fence with more frequency. But watching his son become one of baseball's most celebrated home run hitters was unimaginable.

"When you're hitting one in Little League, when you're hitting one in club ball, when you're hitting one in high school, it's kind of hard to envision that," Clay said.

Bellinger hit one home run in his final season at Hamilton High School in Chandler, Arizona, and didn't produce many more than that in other settings. He was almost always the best player on the field but was hardly ever the strongest. Teammates would tease him about not hitting home runs, but Bellinger seemed content. His hand-eye coordination was elite, his mechanics were uncommonly sound. He hit line drives all over the field and hardly ever chased pitches outside of the strike zone.

"If he wanted to, he probably could've hit more home runs," Clay said. "But I think it would've taken away from everything else he was doing."

Bellinger managed only four home runs in the 98 games he spent at the Dodgers' Rookie-level affiliates in 2013 and '14. The following year, the home runs came suddenly and frequently. Bellinger blasted 30 in 128 games for Rancho Cucamonga in 2015, then 26 in 117 games -- with far fewer strikeouts -- in Double-A and Triple-A in 2016. That was followed by 111 home runs in 450 major league games from 2017 to 2019, a mark topped by only five players during that stretch.

Bellinger at one point decided to consume an entire gallon of milk each day, working most of it into protein shakes. It helped him gain about 20 pounds over the course of one minor league offseason. In hopes of unlocking his power, the Dodgers altered Bellinger's mechanics, incorporating a hand pump that was followed by a flatter bat angle, as detailed by The Athletic.

Bellinger still struggles to keep weight on, losing at least 10 pounds over the course of a season. He constantly alters the position of his hands to get into the right firing position, sometimes multiple times within the same game. At 24, he is already among the game's best all-around players. But he remains a work in progress.

"I always thought that when he ever did get to the big leagues, he was going to hit .300 with 100 walks," Clay said. "Now he's finally hit .300, and I think he can do a whole lot better."

Alex Bregman

Paul Mainieri was coming back from delivering a speech downtown. It was 10 o'clock at night. LSU's baseball stadium was visible on the drive home. His wife turned to him and asked why the lights were on. Mainieri, the Tigers' head coach, already knew the answer. It was Alex Bregman, who had probably convinced one of the student managers to open the gate, turn on the lights and hit him ground balls again. Mainieri confirmed his assumption the following morning and finally gave in, presenting Bregman with a key to the facility.

It was a favor to everybody.

"I've never had a player, in 38 years of coaching, that I could compare to Alex as far as his love of the game, his work ethic, just how much he put into it every day," said Mainieri, who has spent the last 13 years running LSU's baseball program. "You could just see that he had greatness written all over him because he was not going to allow himself to fail."

Bregman's size -- 6 feet, 180 pounds -- has hardly changed at all since he arrived on LSU's campus six years ago, when major league scouts projected him as a catcher. His emergence as a home run hitter has nothing to do with growing into his body; it's the result of an obsessive work ethic that augmented an elite skill set.

Bregman batted .337/.409/.514 and was a two-time All-America shortstop in three seasons at LSU, but he managed only 21 home runs in 196 games. He had the bat speed and hand-eye coordination to smoke line drives all over the field and the strike-zone recognition and two-strike approach to walk more often than he struck out. But home runs were elusive.

"It's just that to hit home runs you have to elevate the ball, and he didn't do that as much in college," Mainieri said. "But he hit the ball just as hard in college as he is in the major leagues."

Bregman played in 132 games over the college season and both of the Houston Astros' Class A levels in 2015 and managed only 13 home runs. He then played in 129 games in Double-A, Triple-A and the major leagues in 2016 and increased his home run total to 28. As a full-time major leaguer from 2017 to 2019, his home runs went from 19 to 31 to 41.

"I thought that he had more power in there and eventually it would show up," Mainieri said. "But I never could've predicted that he would be a 40-home-run-a-year guy."

Bregman has, like many others, altered his approach as a professional. He has actively tried to avoid ground balls, has pushed his hands back and has scrapped an inside-out swing for one that stays through the zone as long as possible, as outlined by FanGraphs. But he still rarely chases -- Bregman swung at 15.5% of pitches outside the strike zone this season, the lowest rate in the majors -- and his home run power isn't as pronounced as one might think.

Bregman's average home run distance in 2019 was 382 feet, which ranked 422nd among the 466 players with at least 50 batted balls, according to Statcast. The inflated home run total was the result of a home ballpark with a short left-field fence, in an era when balls are flying out like never before, from a player who refuses to be denied.

"You take a really good hitter like Alex and put him in an environment where more home runs are hit and he's gonna hit home runs," Mainieri said.

Mike Trout

Most everyone seems to recall the first time they saw Mike Trout play in vivid detail, and Abe Flores is no exception. It was at the Los Angeles Angels' minor league facility in Tempe, Arizona, in 2009. Trout was 17 and playing for the organization's Rookie-level affiliate. Flores sat in the bleachers with a stopwatch in hand. He saw Trout hit a chopper to the left side and turn it into an infield single.

"Oh my god," Flores said to himself.

He couldn't believe a kid who was already so big and strong also possessed that level of burst and speed. Flores spent 10 years with the Angels, the last four as director of player development from 2008 to 2011, a stretch that coincided with Trout's rapid ascent through the minor leagues. Flores loved watching the simple act of Trout running first to third on singles but was also in awe of his tools as a hitter -- the strike-zone discipline, the rapid hands, the way baseballs jumped off his bat.

But the power still was untapped.

Trout was built like a linebacker when he joined the Angels out of high school, but his swing traveled through a steep, downward path that resulted in too many ground balls, as mentioned by The Ringer a couple of years ago. He could often pull pitches with authority, but he lacked power the other way because of another flaw in his swing: Trout would get inside of pitches and "carve" them to right field, producing batted balls that seemed to drift as opposed to traveling on a line with backspin.

Trout slashed .341/.426/.516 in the minors but homered only 23 times in 290 games. Over time, however, Trout got his swing into a more conventional plane, staying through the zone for a longer period and adding more loft to his finish. By 2011, he homered 11 times in 91 games for Double-A Arkansas, which plays in what is historically a pitcher-friendly park. Then he reached the major leagues for good and quickly became a ferocious slugger, in addition to so much else. His 285 career home runs stand as the fifth most in history through a player's age-27 season.

"He was a really special guy, even as a young player," said Flores, who scouted for the Yankees and the Minnesota Twins after leaving the Angels. "And when you got next to him, how big and strong he was, how physical he was -- you knew the power would come."

Trout took pitches until he got a strike throughout his minor league career -- not because anybody instructed him to, but because he believed it was important to build a deep catalog of pitches. When he reached the majors, he possessed an advanced feel for his strike zone, in addition to all the other gifts that were destined to make him an elite hitter.

Trout's isolated power, which measures raw power through the amount of times someone hits for extra bases, has gone from .238 to .353 in eight major league seasons. In 2019, Trout averaged 419 feet on his home runs and ranked fourth in barrels per plate appearance, according to Statcast.

"I think the parallels between Mike and other players is that power is the last component that blossoms," Flores said. "That comes. The more concerns are the ability to make consistent contact, understanding the strike zone, making consistent hard contact, and then the power will blossom in the end."

Christian Yelich

There's something about the fluid swing of a graceful left-handed hitter that makes baseball people swoon. It's the easy rhythm, the natural flow, the seemingly effortless power, an artistry that appeals to the senses like nothing else in the sport.

Christian Yelich had this in abundance. The home run power was elusive early on, but sometimes he'd deliver the barrel right on time, and all the other components would fall into place, and he'd send a baseball sailing over the center-field batter's eye at Roger Dean Stadium, where the Marlins' Rookie and Class A teams play. That's when Dan Jennings' imagination would run wild.

"You'd look at that body," Jennings said, "and you'd go, 'How the hell does he do that?'"

Jennings, now a front-office assistant for the Washington Nationals, worked for the Marlins from 2002 to 2015, occupying a variety of roles that included general manager and interim manager.

When the Marlins made Yelich a first-round pick out of high school in 2010, Jennings envisioned someone who would win multiple batting titles and hit 20 to 30 home runs in the major leagues. Yelich's hand-eye coordination was among the best Jennings had ever seen. He was long and lanky and flat-chested -- "He was the guy that had the long muscles," Jennings said -- but he was bursting with quick-twitch, and occasionally the power appeared.

"He always hit a lot of doubles," Jennings said. "You knew ultimately those doubles would turn into home runs."

Yelich managed only 37 home runs in 309 career minor league games, then hit 16 in 270 major league games in 2014 and '15. Over the next two years, he produced 39 home runs. The two after that, with the Brewers in 2018 and 2019, resulted in more than double that total -- 80 homers, including 44 this season even though he was limited to 130 games because of injury.

Over time, Yelich came to embody the evolution of the modern hitter, sending more pitches to his pull side while increasing the percentage of fly balls. In the summer of 2018, he began standing more upright, with his hands higher and his shoulders more square, getting out in front of pitches as opposed to letting them travel deep into the strike zone, a development that was detailed in ESPN's Body Issue.

But the key to everything, Jennings said, was consistently "hitting against a stiff front side," which involved Yelich locking his right knee at the point of contact, creating the necessary leverage. Everything else was about individual comfort.

"He has a gift," Jennings said. "I mean, one day God decided to make a hitter and he made Christian Yelich. The rest of it was gonna come from his hard work and him understanding his swing and unlocking the rest of it. He's done it. He's a gifted, gifted athlete, he's a blessed hitter, and he worked really hard to get the rest of it to become usable for power."

Yelich appeared in a popular MLB commercial that aired in March. It involved a mock news conference with all of the game's biggest stars making increasingly more audacious predictions about the upcoming season. At one point, Yelich proclaimed: "I'm gonna hit 50 home runs this year."

Jennings saw it and laughed.

"It's one of those statements that make you go, 'What the hell,'" Jennings said. "And sure enough, he comes in and he almost does it."

Joe Root plans to drop back to his favoured No. 4 spot in the England batting order for the Test series against New Zealand - and stay there.

Root moved up one place to No. 3 most recently during the drawn Ashes series over the English summer, scoring 325 runs at an average of 32.50. It was expected before the tour of New Zealand that Root would return to No. 4 and he batted there in the first warm-up match in Whangarei.

"I'd like to be consistent with it now, moving forward," he told the BBC. "It doesn't always work exactly how you want it to but it would be nice for that to be the case.

"I just think it suits my game a little bit more. It definitely fits in with captaincy a little bit better for me.

"I know previous captains have preferred to get out there early and just get amongst it but I quite like to split the two and to really focus on my batting. I've found over time that, generally, I've consistently played better in that position."

Root had batted at No. 3 previously, spending much of 2016 there before he was captain, although he reverted to No. 4 as soon as he took on the leadership. He returned to No. 3 during the English summer of 2018 but struggled for runs and dropped back down again. Overall, he averages 38.12 batting at first drop and 48.39 while batting at No. 4.

The side selected for the second warm-up match, also in Whangarei, starting on Friday, is expected to mirror the first Test line-up.

Root's move back down the order would mean Joe Denly also moves down a spot to No. 3 after recovering from an ankle injury that ruled him out of the T20 series in New Zealand. Denly would likely replace Zak Crawley, who scored a century in his first innings as an England player during the tour match earlier this week, with Rory Burns set to open alongside debutant Dom Sibley.

"We haven't officially picked a team yet," Root said of the side to face a New Zealand XI in the final warm-up fixture. "As you'd expect, the majority of that will go and play the first Test match."

The first of two Tests starts at Mount Maunganui on November 21, although neither is part of the World Test Championship.