BOSTON -- Zdeno Chara and Rod Brind'Amour overlapped in the NHL as players for 12 seasons, and Brind'Amour spent most of that time resenting the 6-foot-9 defenseman.

"Not too many fond memories, that's for sure," Brind'Amour said earlier this month. "A lot like Scott Stevens for me. He was the kind of player you knew when you were in the corner that you were either gonna get crushed or something was gonna happen."

Brind'Amour retired in 2010 and now coaches the Carolina Hurricanes. Chara is still the captain of the Boston Bruins, imposing his size and will on opponents -- while giving zero indications of retirement, even as the NHL morphs quickly around him as a younger, faster man's game.

And so when Chara's Bruins beat Brind'Amour's Hurricanes in this year's Eastern Conference finals, the coach couldn't help but stop when he met his former foe in the handshake line.

"Much respect for you," Brind'Amour said. "You can't keep doing this. Good for you. Good luck to you."

Like Brind'Amour, most of the NHL is in awe of what the six-time Norris Trophy finalist has been able to achieve over 21 seasons, 1,485 regular-season games and counting. After all, at 42, Chara is now closer in age to Brind'Amour (48) than he is to all but one of his current teammates. To get a sense of what others in the league think of Chara, just consider these comments from his opponents in the Stanley Cup Final.

"To play at that age, at that size?" Blues center Brayden Schenn said. "It's pretty incredible to watch him to see what he's done so far. I think all guys in the league respect him."

"Honestly, it's just fun to watch him play," St. Louis defenseman Colton Parayko added. "He's still got it. He's big and still moves well, he's actually unbelievable."

"He's not as fast as he was when he was younger," fourth-liner Oskar Sundqvist said. "So you need to get the puck behind him, try to get him to turn around as much as possible. Of course, that's still not very easy."

And Blues veteran winger Chris Thorburn: "I've actually fought him twice. The second one I asked him [to fight]. The first one he came after me. I think our tough guy fought [Milan Lucic], and then I bumped [Chara], and he grabbed me and he hit me pretty hard with one. He could have hit me again, but another part of him is such a respectful player, he didn't. If you're willing to fight him -- well first, good luck. But he plays by the code and the rules, and that's why everyone respects him."

Chara, a native of Slovakia, is the son of an Olympic Greco-Roman wrestler. He is a notorious gym nut (he keeps detailed logs of each of his offseason workouts). Chara says he got a sense a few years ago of how the NHL was trending in terms of speed, and made necessary training adjustments. It helps that he studies hockey as hard as anyone.

"He knows every single guy's tendencies on the other team, and if he doesn't, he's asking the assistant coaches, he's asking the video coaches what they've seen from so-and-so from games past on film," teammate Torey Krug said.

That has led to his impressive longevity. Since making his playoff debut in 2002, Chara has played more than 4,629 playoff minutes. The next-highest player in that span? Nicklas Lidstrom, at 3,721. And within that time frame, Chara's game has evolved.

"The way he plays the game was a lot more tilted years ago to those physical one-on-one battles," Bruins coach Bruce Cassidy said. "Now it's a little more pace. Use your stick and angles to play defense more so than in the past. He's adjusted real well. He's still going to be Z -- heavy in front of the net, a shot suppressor on the PK -- but he's had to change playing against smaller, quicker guys, and he's done a nice job."

This season, Chara's ice time dipped below 22 minutes per game for the first time in 20 years, though he's still on the top pairing, and in the playoffs he's second on the team in ice time per game, trailing only partner Charlie McAvoy. Chara has maintained his even keel (it's difficult to find examples of Chara not speaking in a mild manner) and toughness (consider Game 1, when Chara's arm bled profusely after being hit by a shot near the end of the third period; about 20 minutes later, he was standing by his locker, calmly telling reporters that he got stitches but was totally fine).

But perhaps just as important to the Bruins is the way Chara leads. The captain -- fluent in Slovak, Czech, Polish, Russian, German, Swedish and English -- is committed to inclusivity. He infamously hates using the word "rookie," explaining he doesn't like to create divisions in the locker room among younger and older players.

"He treats everyone the same way," teammate Brad Marchand said. "You'd expect sometimes guys with that big of a presence, and how famous he is, he'd be a little arrogant. But that's not him at all. He's extremely humble, he's thankful for everything that he has, and he's worked extremely hard for it. He's an incredible leader in that sense. He makes it very easy to learn from, and to feel welcome and part of the group. I think it's part of why our young guys are very comfortable being the loudest guys in the room. We need that, it's energy we feed off of."

Krug explained that dynamic further on the ESPN On Ice podcast this month: "For a young guy to walk into our locker room, I'll be completely honest with you. If you walk into our room and you try to have a conversation with Patrice Bergeron, Zdeno Chara, David Krejci, go down the list, it's pretty intimidating. That is, in itself, tough to do. What people probably don't understand is how welcoming those guys are. Z is a big part of it. He is obviously doing his own thing and trying to prepare the right way and everything like that. But his conversations and his willingness to let guys do their own thing -- and obviously get to the rink and enjoy his time at the rink -- has been special."

Chara is so committed to evolving, he even tried something new last season: his own Instagram page. The defenseman has been diligent about posting; like most athletes, there are quite a few selfies and some gym videos, but also thoughtful captions about friendship, the importance of expanding one's mind, and a few cultural lessons about Slovakia.

And after the Hurricanes series, Chara decided to post about Brind'Amour.

"Rod is a true leader and was a tough warrior to play against," Chara wrote in the caption. "At last night's handshake line, his words meant a lot to me. Balancing respect and intensity are what the playoffs are all about."

Game 2 of the Stanley Cup Final is Wednesday night between the Boston Bruins and the St. Louis Blues at TD Garden, with the Bruins leading the series 1-0.

What can we expect from the second showdown in Beantown? Let's attack it as a Q&A primer in today's Stanley Cup Playoffs Daily:

Is Torey Krug the new Scott Stevens?

In the sense that he laid out an opponent with a hit that instantly sparked joy on his bench, anger in his opponents and controversy among the fans? Krug's rink-length rush to wallop Robert Thomas of the Blues in Game 1, sans helmet, was still the talk of the Bruins' dressing room on the eve of Game 2. "Yeah, it was just a perfect moment. A lot of things lined up for me. I have a few hits here and there. If you don't watch our team much, you probably don't realize that because of my stature. But you can go through the archives. There's a few," he said.

Is Torey Krug a smaller Brad Marchand?

Marchand referred to Krug as "the Little Bad Bruin" on Tuesday, and told the media that Krug has been inspired to be more of a pest because he is "rocking my shirt under his jersey" and that "it's a little big for him, but he fits in" the No. 63 shirt. "I couldn't find it one day and I saw him wearing it. He stole it from me," Marchand said. He also claimed that Krug skated the full rink for the hit for cosmetic reasons. "He's got some sexy flow and it waves in the wind and everything. I'm sure that's why he took that run up the ice, because he knew there would be some good pictures of it," he said.

Is Torey Krug on something?

Krug and Blues goalie Jordan Binnington glared at each other during Game 1. "It was more of a stare. His pupils were pretty big -- I don't know if he's on something -- but he was pretty fired up," Binnington said. OK, doctor, whatever you say.

The Blues dominated the first 21 minutes of Game 1. Then the Bruins rallied from a two-goal deficit and absolutely rolled them, from shot attempts to the scoreboard. How does St. Louis prevent that from happening again?

These are two teams that try to exert their will on the other via their forecheck. The Blues especially thrive on that pressure in the attacking zone. They aren't a team that can generate much offense off the rush. They earn their chances from winning battles below the goal line and creating outward -- look no further than Vladimir Tarasenko's goal in Game 1.

But that forecheck went the way of Blockbuster Video and the California Golden Seals in the second and third periods, and coach Craig Berube believes it all comes back to how the Blues handled the puck and supported each other. "We need a lot more O-zone time in the game. We turned too many pucks over, couldn't get on the forecheck enough. Never made them play in their end enough," he said. "They're a good forecheck team. They pressure, they've got good speed, they're a well-structured hockey team. Our puck support wasn't very good in the second and third period and puck play in general. Just too many turnovers. We need better support, better puck play."

What about their other big failing in Game 1, those five trips to the penalty box?

The Bruins are 4-0 this postseason when they get at least five power-play chances, and 6-1 when they get at least four such chances. So, um, the Blues need to fix that.

Right, so what's the solution?

That's the other benefit of an effective forecheck -- you're putting yourself in a better position to earn penalties and preventing situations where you need to take ones. But overall, the least-penalized team (on average) in the playoffs was short-handed for 9:37 of Game 1. The silver lining is that they dropped the Bruins' power-play success rate from 34 percent down to 32.7 percent by killing four of the five penalties. The bad news is that the one goal they allowed by Charlie McAvoy was a critical, game-tying goal in the second period.

"Obviously I think the first thing, just using our feet to check and your heads to check is the biggest thing. Just playing our game, getting to our game early on and just playing a full 60 that way. Moving our feet is going to be the biggest thing, checking that way," defenseman Colton Parayko said.

The Blues have prided themselves on a strong forecheck, winning physical battles and staying disciplined. So we're not sure who that team was wearing the Blue Note for the last 39 minutes of Game 1, because it didn't look like them.

Should the Blues be worried about Binnington?

No. The goalie who famously responded to a question about his nerves with "Do I look nervous?" wasn't at his best in his first Stanley Cup Final game, especially on Sean Kuraly's game-winning goal. "I've got to be better. That's my puck there," he said. "It happens and unfortunately we couldn't get back tied up. It is what it is and we move on." But if there's one common trait for Binnington since he took the crease for the Blues, it's his ability to follow less-than-stellar games with strong ones. Expect that trend to continue in Game 2.

Could St. Louis defenseman Vince Dunn return for Game 2?

Berube said "there's a chance" his smooth puck-moving defenseman could return after being struck with a puck in Game 3 against San Jose. "Dunner's a good puck mover for sure, can skate and get up the ice, he does a lot of good things with the puck. We love him in there. He's not available right now, maybe we'll see after today," Berube said Tuesday.

Does it even matter anymore for St. Louis? The Bruins won Game 1. That's the series, right?

Historically, yes. Since the Final went to the best-of-seven format in 1939, the team that has won Game 1 has gone on to capture the Stanley Cup 77.2% of the time, or in 61 of 79 series.

"I was actually thinking about how long it was going to take until somebody brought up a fact like that," Bruins goalie Tuukka Rask said when asked about that stat. "Whatever. We go out there every night and we try to win. We're not going to get caught up in those kinds of stats."

Besides, there are exceptions to that rule. Look no further than last season when the Washington Capitals lost Game 1 and roared back with four straight wins. And if there ever was a postseason where trends are bucked and the unexpected is expected, it's this one. I mean, Torey Krug just had the hit of the playoffs. It has been that kind of spring.

UEFA will ask FIFA and football's lawmakers to review their concussion guidelines to ease the pressure on doctors and ensure that concussed players are not allowed to continue playing, the organisation said on Wednesday following a series of worrying incidents.

European football's governing body want The International Football Association Board (IFAB), who manage the laws of the game, to "consider potential changes to the Laws of the Game (such as in terms of substitutions)" to allow the sport to move forward in handling concussion in a more responsible way.

At present, referees must stop the match to allow the injured player to be assessed by the team doctor. The player can only continue with specific confirmation by the team doctor to the referee that he is fit to do so.

However, the world players' union FIFPRo said this does not go far enough. They want temporary substitutions to be allowed while a player is examined and authorisation given by a neutral, rather than a team doctor.

"I strongly believe that the current regulations on concussion need updating to protect both the players and the doctors and to ensure appropriate diagnosis can be made without disadvantaging the teams affected," UEFA president Aleksander Ceferin said.

During Tottenham's Champions League semifinal first leg clash with Ajax, Jan Vertonghen suffered a head injury and initially returned to the pitch, before was forced to go off moments later and appeared to collapse on the sidelines.

Major League Soccer and Liga MX have confirmed the creation of an annual Leagues Cup between teams from each competition, as reported by ESPN last February.

The inaugural cup competition will begin in the United States over July 23 and 24 and see Houston Dynamo face Club America, Real Salt Lake host Tigres, Chicago Fire play Cruz Azul and LA Galaxy take on Club Tijuana. The MLS teams will all play at home.

The winners of the quarterfinals advance to the semis, which be played on Aug. 20. MLS clubs will play at home if they face Mexican opposition and the games will be in either BBVA Compass Stadium in Houston or Dignity Health Sports Park in Los Angeles if they are all Liga MX or all MLS affairs.

The final will take place on Sept. 18 in the United States at a location yet to be be announced.

"We are excited to take our partnership with Liga MX to the next level with Leagues Cup," MLS Commissioner Don Garber said in a statement.

"We have an intense rivalry between our national teams, and Leagues Cup provides a terrific opportunity to increase the growing rivalry between MLS and Liga MX clubs."

The tournament has been sanctioned by CONCACAF, with Liga MX and MLS clubs not taking part in the CONCACAF Champions League until the Round of 16 stage in early 2020.

"Alongside our own expanded regional club competitions, which includes the Scotiabank CONCACAF Champions League, the Leagues Cup organized by Liga MX and MLS further strengthens our sport in our Confederation and is a precursor for future collaboration between CONCACAF, Liga MX, MLS and other key stakeholders," said CONCACAF president Victor Montagliani.

Leagues Cup is part of a drive from both MLS and Liga MX to strengthen the working relationship, which was formally cemented in a strategic partnership announced in 2018.

"We are taking this extremely seriously," Real Salt Lake head coach Mike Petke said. "This is not like when we played Manchester United in a summer friendly. Of course, we want to win that too but this is a tournament-style.

"It's something that's going to have a trophy at the end of it, so that's something that we take extremely seriously, and it's something that's going to motivate the players, as it will myself, coaches and staff."

It will be the first time Mexico international and LA Galaxy midfielder Jonathan dos Santos will be competing against a Mexican team in an official competition.

"Yes, for me I think it will be the first time that I will face Mexican teams," Dos Santos, whose Galaxy side will face Tijuana, said.

"It will be a one-of-a-kind experience for me, just like for the club, the league. I think it is important for the growth. I think it is important to be seen worldwide. The Liga MX is growing, too. I think it was a good decision to put this [Leagues Cup] together."

Mexican clubs haven't competed in South America's Copa Libertadores tournament since 2016 and Montagliani said earlier this month that the focus would be on strengthening on regional competition and the CONCACAF Champions League.

Liga MX clubs have dominated CONCACAF's regional club tournament, winning the last 14 editions, although for Leagues Cup the Mexican teams will be coming into the tournament with only one competitive game, with the 2019 Apertura only beginning on July 19.

Current MLS champion Atlanta United will host Club America or Tigres on Aug. 14 in Mercedes-Benz Stadium in the Campeones Cup, another part of the deepening relationship between MLS and Liga MX.

MLS and Liga MX sides used to play the SuperLiga, which included four teams from each league and ran between 2007 and 2010, before it was discontinued.

The only thing left to settle in the 2018-19 club season are the European honors and it begins on Wednesday as Arsenal take on Chelsea for the Europa League title. Gab Marcotti gets you prepared with what you need to know ahead of the game.

BACKSTORY: These two clubs are less than 10 miles apart -- roughly 40 minutes by London Underground -- but they've had to travel nearly 3,000 miles to face off in Baku, Azerbaijan, where they'll contest the Europa League final. Perhaps unsurprisingly, neither team sold out its allocation of about 6,000 tickets each (in a 60,000-seat stadium).

Limited airport capacity and hotel availability also drew criticism from supporters when it came to the choice of venue, but it doesn't end there. Azerbaijan is technically still at war with neighboring Armenia over the disputed enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh. Tensions between the two countries run high and Arsenal's Henrikh Mkhitaryan, who is Armenian, elected not to make the trip, citing security concerns.

At stake is the second biggest trophy in European football and, for Arsenal, a place in the Champions League next season. (Chelsea already qualified by finishing third in the Premier League.)

THE ROAD TO BAKU: Both teams breezed through the group stage, often fielding second-string sides, but Arsenal had the tougher run in the knockout phases. They had to come from behind to dispatch BATE Borisov from Belarus and Rennes before hitting their stride and impressively knocking out Napoli and Valencia. It was a photonegative of Chelsea's run, which saw them win home and away in every round until the semifinal, when Eintracht Frankfurt took them all the way to penalty kicks after two draws.

- Sources: Kante set to miss Europa League final
- Premier League: Who qualifies for Europe?
- Toe Poke: The road to Baku -- how fans can make it
- Laurens: How BFFs Lacazette, Aubameyang transformed Arsenal

QUESTION MARK FOR ARSENAL: Goalkeeper Petr Cech started every knockout game in the Europa League and is retiring after Wednesday night, but two factors make you wonder whether he'll get the nod. One is that Bernd Leno has been the first-choice keeper in the league since October. Loyalty and sentimentality are great, but potential revenue from qualifying for the Champions League next season could run into the nine figures. The other is that Cech will reportedly join Chelsea in a front office role when he hangs up his cleats next month. Arsenal boss Unai Emery is giving nothing away, saying he "trusts" both keepers.

QUESTION MARK FOR CHELSEA: N'Golo Kante thought he'd recovered in time from a muscular injury late in the season only to injure his knee in training last week. Chelsea coach Maurizio Sarri says he's 50/50 and his absence would be a massive blow. Kante, a midfield terrier who has developed into an effective two-way player this season, is arguably Chelsea's most important figure not named Eden Hazard. What's more, a season-ending injury to Ruben Loftus-Cheek means Chelsea are down to just three able-bodied midfielders, which is a problem when you play in a 4-3-3 formation.

TACTICAL CONTRAST: Both Emery and Sarri believe in pressing and a pass-oriented game, and both men have occasionally had a rough time from fans and pundits (more so Sarri, to be fair). But where Sarri is a staunch 4-3-3 man, hardly ever deviating from his favored system and (somewhat counterintuitive) style of play, Emery is a tactical chameleon. Back three or back four, midfield three or two, man in the hole or outright wingers or both: he seemingly pulls out a bespoke formation based on availability and opponent for every single match.

NEEDS TO PERFORM FOR ARSENAL: Mesut Ozil was once the poster boy for the all-conquering multicultural German national team, the slight wizard who conjured up oodles of assists for Cristiano Ronaldo at Real Madrid and Arsenal's record signing. He's still the latter but has had a bumpy ride, with Emery benching him at times and questioning his effectiveness away from home -- Baku is very much away from home -- at others. He has the magic to unlock any defence and a big-time pedigree to match. With Aaron Ramsey injured and Mkhitaryan watching from a distance, it will be up to him to link midfield and attack.

NEEDS TO PERFORM FOR CHELSEA: As the Blues' deep-lying playmaker, Jorginho set records for the number of passes in a single game, but as his critics point out, it's purely meaningless stat-padding if the system doesn't work. Too often, it did not. Still, he's the point guard who makes Sarri's motion offense function. If he gets flustered, careless or simply passes the ball sideways endlessly, the whole machine grinds to a halt.

STAR MAN FOR ARSENAL: Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang is your plug-and-play striker. Whether he lines up in a front two alongside Alexandre Lacazette, up top on his own or placed out wide, his combination of speed and finishing means he'll get his chances. After all, 41 goals in 64 games (all competitions) since joining the club 18 months ago tell their own story. Whatever Arsenal's ills may be, he ain't among them.

STAR MAN FOR CHELSEA: Eden Hazard is appropriately named because when the ball is at his feet, danger is near. Few men in the game can wreak havoc out of seemingly innocuous situations. Fewer still have a body that seems built for what they do: powerful backside, low to the ground, twinkle-toes on his feet. It will be a poignant occasion for him as well. He's a year away from free agency, has refused a contract extension and appears to be on his way to Real Madrid, where he'd join his boyhood idol, Zinedine Zidane.

ARSENAL WILL WIN BECAUSE ... Emery is a cup knockout specialist, particularly in the Europa League, a competition he has already won a record three times. He's pragmatic enough to spot weaknesses and make adjustments during games and with Granit Xhaka and Lucas Torreira, he has the weapons to neutralize and frustrate Chelsea's midfield.

CHELSEA WILL WIN BECAUSE ... Arsenal's defence has a penchant for individual errors and self-destruction like few others and Chelsea have a knack for punishing mistakes. Hazard against Arsenal's fullbacks is a mismatch regardless of whether Emery plays a back three or a back four. And there's the distinct possibility, as sometimes happens, that Ozil shows up in body only.

PREDICTION: Arsenal 2, Chelsea 1 (after extra time, which means this game, kicking off at 11 p.m. local time, will go well into Thursday)

There's very little to separate these two teams but the uncertainty over Kante sways it slightly in Arsenal's favor. There's also the fact that while both teams have plenty of players unavailable (Mkhitaryan, Ramsey and Hector Bellerin for Arsenal, Loftus-Cheek, Callum Hudson-Odoi and Antonio Rudiger for Chelsea), Emery's side have more individual match-winners.

Eoin Morgan believes the World Cup in England can inspire "every young kid in this country" to take up cricket.

While Morgan, the England captain, accepted that the impact of the tournament will be greater if his team "go a long way" in it, he believes that simply hosting the event for the first time since 1999 will capture the public imagination and attract a new generation of supporters. And he drew on the example of England's women's side, who won a home World Cup in 2017, to show the effect a successful side could have.

"The World Cup alone raises the profile of the game," Morgan said. "And provides a platform for every young kid in this country to have a hero or inspiration to pick up a ball or a bat.

ALSO READ: The importance of Moeen and Rashid to England

"The impact of this World Cup is not as big an impact unless we go a long way, but it will have an impact on everybody. We got knocked out of the '99 World Cup early, but I still remember it like it was yesterday.

"The impact of that [women's] World Cup two years ago was amazing. The women's game is thriving. It would mean a huge amount for us to win it. I couldn't imagine what it would do."

While much live coverage of the tournament remains, in England and Wales at least, behind a paywall, the ECB hopes that the publicity generated by it will overflow into the mainstream media and create a similar level of excitement as experienced during the football World Cup last year.

In a reflection of the efforts being made to capture the public imagination, Morgan and all the other World Cup captains have been invited to meet Queen Elizabeth II at a reception at Buckingham Palace on Wednesday evening, while an opening party will take place along the Mall in London.

The England squad also welcomed Gareth Southgate, the manager of the England football side, into their dressing rooms in recent times to share his experience of reaching the semi-finals of last year's World Cup in Russia. And while Morgan recognised the similar challenges facing sides who had struggled in previous tournaments, he did hint that the expectations of the teams were quite different.

"Yes, we did a session with Gareth," Morgan said. "And it was brilliant. He talked about his journey with the team in and around the World Cup and its build-up and how they built bigger expectations and came together more as a group.

"I think everybody who has been involved with our team over the last four years recognised that they are where we were two years ago and we started exactly where they did. We recognised what had happened in the past, tried to do things differently and moved forward.

"Gareth did brilliantly. They got to the semi-final and everybody said it was great. But we got knocked out of the Champions Trophy semi-final and everyone said we were crap."

Morgan, clearly, was joking on that point. However, he was not seeking to play down the expectation upon his team. Having gone into previous tournaments considered no-hopers, he relished the fact his England team are ranked No. 1 in the world and seen by many as favourites for the trophy.

"The level of expectation and favourite tags is there for a reason," he said. "Over the last two years, our form at home, in particular, has been outstanding. That's the reason the expectation is there.

"In a lot of the World Cups I've played in - or in which a couple of the guys in the changing room have played in - we've gone in with very little expectation and not done that well. I'd pick this position over any other.

"There's a lot of belief within the room. The transformation of the team has been brilliant. We're very confident within our own game."

As far as a Plan A goes, South Africa's is a decent one: put Dale Steyn, Kagiso Rabada and Lungi Ngidi into an attack together, throw in Imran Tahir and sit back. As far as not being able to call upon your Plan A goes, two days out from your first match in a World Cup, against the hosts and favourites is not so decent.

South Africa will be without Steyn tomorrow and against the format's pre-eminent batting order, it is difficult to argue against Faf du Plessis' assessment that it is "a big loss". It is perfectly valid to counter that Steyn with the white ball is not quite as inarguably great as Steyn with the red ball. The counter to that counter is that in this squad, it means South Africa choose between Chris Morris and Dwaine Pretorius as replacement. Capable as both are, neither quite fills the X-factor Steyn's presence provides to the pace attack.

"Yeah, it is a big loss to our team," du Plessis said. "We did expect it when we picked the squad. He wasn't quite - probably about 60 per cent when the squad was picked; so we anticipated for this to happen.

"But yeah, Dale Steyn, a fit Dale Steyn, makes our bowling attack a very, very strong one. So tomorrow will be a little bit of chopping and changing to get a balance that we think can take on England."

Scrambling would not be quite the right way to describe South Africa's response - they are making a deal out of how not a big deal this tournament is - but it will require a reshuffle of the XI and, more importantly, strategy.

Coach Ottis Gibson and du Plessis are not alone around the world in thinking that England's batting fire must be combated by bowling fire: attack, look to take wickets, they come hard, you go harder. To that purpose Steyn is still important - his strike rate (31.9) puts him at eighth in the all-time list of ODI bowlers with at least 100 wickets and 100 ODIs.

"As I said, one of our X-factors, potentially we have is a really, really strong attack in terms of pace. Steyn, Rabada, Ngidi is a real, real threat in English conditions. So that changes. That's Plan A for the World Cup in terms of our balance, what we're looking to achieve. Now it's just a real reshuffle and looking to Plan B and C.

"For us as a leadership group, it's trying to find how can we be most attacking and trying to get wickets. Obviously that was with Dale included but that changed now, so we'll look at setting up our team to try to make sure we can get guys on the team that can get wickets."

Either Morris or Pretorius is an adequate fit, and they bring some depth to the batting as well. Morris hasn't played an ODI for South Africa for a year though he is quicker than Pretorius. An outside punt would be Tabraiz Shamsi's weird and wonderful left-arm wristspin, if for nothing else but the element of surprise and especially if you can recall Kuldeep Yadav's 6 for 25 at Trent Bridge less than a year ago.

But England worked him out pretty quickly and in a very limited sample size of eight innings over the last decade, they go over a run-a-ball against that genre of bowling. One of Morris or Pretorius it will be, neither of whom is Steyn.

Big Picture

Four years of planning, four years of preparation. Forty-four years of hurt and counting. And maybe the chance, at long last, for long-overdue World Cup redemption. But which team are we discussing here? England, the hosts, or South Africa, the challengers?

For there could be no more apt contest with which to launch the 12th Cricket World Cup - the fifth on English soil but the first for 20 years - than a match-up between the two sides with arguably the most torrid World Cup histories of them all.

In the (light-) blue corner … the hosts, the favourites, the perpetual laughing stocks. A team that reached three World Cup finals in the first five editions, lost the lot, and have not won a single knock-out fixture in the three decades since - as if the pain of further rejection has superseded any desire to countenance that long-awaited success.

And in the green-with-yellow-tinges corner, the quadrennial accidents waiting to happen. The team that spent the first four editions of the tournament on the outside looking in, but then - welcomed into the fold from 1992 onwards - somehow hit upon new and ever more gruesome ways to screw up their best-laid plans.

From rain-rules (times two), to last-ball sixes, via the single most storied run-out in World Cup history, South Africa - unlike England - have been a team from which great things have been expected, and on which great calamity has endlessly been bestowed.

Have those expectations now been swapped going into the 2019 edition? South Africa are now the team coasting into the competition with expectations at an all-time low, and the squad are consequently in something approaching a chilled-out frame of mind (although the news that SACA has just instigated legal proceedings against the board may yet be the start of a new means to disrupt that sangfroid).

Instead, it is England about whom the entire world is talking … and about whom everyone is doubtless preparing to burst out laughing if they fail to fulfil their destiny this summer. But, tellingly, no matter how wishful the thinking may be on that front, there is no escaping the notes of respect and trepidation that underpin every mention of the world No.1s.

England's four-year journey from no-hopers to world-beaters has been stunning and well-documented - as many as five players still survive from the team that crashed out in the group stages against Bangladesh four years ago, but it is the transformation in mindset that has been stunning and unequivocal.

It began with Eoin Morgan's insistence, after that 2015 debacle, that things had to change - that England had to embrace players who, in the first instance, weren't afraid to fail, in order to free them up to become the attacking team they needed to be.

And it has continued with an almost Olympian pursuit of batting excellence. Citius, altius, fortius has been the message from the top. If in doubt, go for your shots. And if it goes wrong - as it has done on a handful of notable occasions - go again. England have made it their business to embrace their status as favourites, and to absorb the pressure that comes with that status, by wearing their learning lightly and projecting an impenetrable confidence in their overall direction of travel.

There's every possibility that England will once again fall short as they attempt to claim the silverware that eluded the likes of Gooch and Botham, Gatting and Gower. But the round-robin format mitigates against one-off accidents - and two notable notches in this team's recent history stand as testaments to the fact that no contest is over until it is over.

The brutality of England's defeat in the World T20 final in 2016 was followed a year later by the totality of their collapse against Pakistan in the 2017 Champions Trophy. Both matches, however, came earlier than expected in England's journey into the light. Morgan himself had always envisaged a four-year plan when it came to scraping his team off the turf after that dreadful defeat in Adelaide.

As for South Africa … who could forget the shattered minds and bodies that littered the Auckland outfield after that semi-final defeat four years ago? They perhaps felt, in that moment, that their latest and best chance at glory had been snatched by Grant Elliott's scythe through the line. And yet, the core of that squad are back for another go four years on - lessened by the loss of AB de Villiers in the interim, but emboldened perhaps by their relative anonymity and bolstered by a raft of young guns who, as Faf du Plessis pointed out in the pre-match press conference, have experience of winning a World Cup at under-19 level.

And so here we are, at the start of a potential 11 matches on the road to overdue glory. So near, so far. So often. So what's it to be this time?

Form guide

England WWWWL (last five completed matches, most recent first)

South Africa WWWWW

In the spotlight

England are "obsessed" with reaching the 500-mark, says Virat Kohli. And if that statement was merely an exercise in mind games, it nevertheless cut straight to the quick of England's World Cup credentials. They go into the competition as favourites on account of their awesome batting power, and no-one epitomises that better right now than the man who is likely to face their first ball of the tournament. Jason Roy's partnership with Jonny Bairstow is already among the most statistically awesome in ODI history, but on his Surrey home ground, and with a run of two fifties and a hundred in his last three ODI innings, it is Roy who seems best placed to produce the game-shaping onslaught - not least after his dress-rehearsal 89 not out from 46 balls against Afghanistan on this very ground. What is more, he has a point to prove in global events, after his drastic collapse in form during the 2017 Champions Trophy. If it really is to be England's time this time, then Roy is one of the men who must surely shine.

There was a palpable sense of panic in South Africa's ranks when Kagiso Rabada was flown home early from the IPL after sustaining a back niggle. Thoroughbred fast bowlers of his calibre are few and far between, and seeing as their all-time great, Dale Steyn, is going into the tournament with a shoulder injury that is set to rule him out of at least the first two games, the loss of the heir apparent would have been grievous. And yet, CSA's caution appears to have got Rabada to the starting line with no lasting damage. He eased back into action with seven well-directed overs in the warm-up against Sri Lanka - scalping Dimuth Karunaratne with a 140kph bouncer - and a bowler of his pace, skill and reputation is precisely the sort of weapon to rattle England's formidable ball-strikers. Who could forget his most recent appearance in an ODI in England, at Lord's in 2017?

Team news

England's XI has been chosen a full 24 hours in advance, and seeing as Eoin Morgan has declared a "full bill of health", there would seem to be just one strategic call to be made - do they trust Mark Wood, post-ankle scare, to hurtle in at the 90mph pace that he was able to display in his solitary outing against Pakistan earlier this month, despite having bowled just 13.1 competitive overs this season. Or do they revert to the tried-and-tested Liam Plunkett, England's most prolific fast-bowling wicket-taker since the 2015 World Cup, and a man whose very modus operandi is that he will let no-one down?

England: 1 Jason Roy, 2 Jonny Bairstow, 3 Joe Root, 4 Eoin Morgan (capt), 5 Jos Buttler (wk), 6 Ben Stokes, 7 Moeen Ali, 8 Chris Woakes, 9 Adil Rashid, 10 Jofra Archer, 11 Liam Plunkett/Mark Wood.

Steyn, as mentioned, is hors de combat, although it's a scenario that has not caught his captain, Faf du Plessis, unawares - South Africa's spearhead came into the World Cup about "60 percent ready", he explained on the eve of the match. Lungi Ngidi and Rabada will provide ample pace interjections in his absence, while South Africa have a brace of seasoned allrounders to fill the Steyn void. Of the two, Chris Morris seems more likely to get first dibs than Dwayne Pretorius.

South Africa: (possible) 1 Hashim Amla, 2 Quinton de Kock (wk), 3 Faf du Plessis (capt), 4 Rassie van der Dussen, 5 David Miller, 6 JP Duminy, 7 Andile Phehlukwayo, 8 Chris Morris, 9 Kagiso Rabada, 10 Lungi Ngidi, 11 Imran Tahir.

Pitch and conditions

It looks a green and lively surface at this stage of the build-up, and assuming it retains that tinge of grass come the toss, it'll be a no-brainer, bowl-first wicket. England's preference is invariably to chase, but stand by for 40 minutes of hard graft against the new balls for whichever side is asked to take first strike. Thereafter, of course, you can expect normal service to apply. A true-paced batting wicket, brimful of runs. Rain was falling on match eve but the forecast for Thursday is warm, cloudy and dry.

Stats and trivia

• Neither team has lost a match in their most recent five-match ODI series. South Africa crushed Sri Lanka 5-0 on home soil in their final outing in March, while England beat Pakistan 4-0 (with one game, at The Oval, washed out).

• England beat South Africa 2-1 in their most recent ODI encounter, in 2017. However, their one defeat was instructive. Facing up to Rabada on a Lord's greentop, they suffered one of their habitual batting malfunctions, tumbling to 20 for 6 and a seven-wicket defeat.

• Warm-up matches may not count for much in the final analysis, but England certainly enjoyed their preview of the Oval conditions on Monday, battering Afghanistan by nine wickets with 195 balls left unused.

• England fared okay on the last occasion that they hosted a World Cup opener - beating Sri Lanka by eight wickets at Lord's in 1999 - in one of their few highlights of a dismal campaign.

• South Africa, however, had less to write home about when they hosted West Indies in the 2003 curtain-raiser. A Brian Lara special condemned them to a three-run defeat, one that would prove rather costly a few weeks down the line …

Quotes

"The level of expectation and favourite tags is there for a reason. Over the last two years, our form at home, in particular, has been outstanding. That's the reason the expectation is there."
Eoin Morgan embraces England's front-runners status.

"England are the favourites, so if it means on the day there is less pressure on us then we can play freely. We are going in as underdogs and if that releases some players in the team, then that is great."." Faf du Plessis embraces England's front-runners status too.