AB De Villiers, South Africa, Sri Lanka, captain, CT 2017
AB De Villiers will want his South Africa team to put the pedal to the metal from ball one against SLMike Hewitt/Getty Images

Hope the rain stays away and get going with a handsome victory in the ICC Champions Trophy 2017 – that will be the plan for South Africa when they begin their campaign against Sri Lanka.

While the Lankans are usually a formidable team in ICC tournaments, for the 2017 edition of the CT, they don't look capable of going deep.

Without their retired legends and with several of their stars struggling with injury or form, this Sri Lanka side don't look capable of beating the strong units in the ICC Champions Trophy, even in the unpredictable limited-overs formats.

If this was a T20 tournament, Sri Lanka might have had a better chance, but with 50 overs each to play, it does look like South Africa's game to lose, especially with the Lankans expected to be without their captain Angelo Mathews, who is struggling to recover from a calf problem.

Not that the Proteas always fill you with confidence going into a major tournament, but for the early parts at least, when the pressure is a little less, they do look good to put up Ws on the board.

Along with India, South Africa are fancied to reach the semifinals from Group B and AB De Villiers and his team will want to show why.

"I think it will help a crazy lot if we can win this one for the 2019 World Cup," De Villiers said. "It's again here in England. If you can do it once here, you can definitely repeat it.

"So yeah, lots of focus on this tournament. It's a short tournament, so it's not quite the same as the World Cup and not the same kind of challenges.

"But if you do get your rhythms right in this tournament and you get going, and if we do that, I think we'll be difficult to stop."

When and where to watch live

South Africa vs Sri Lanka is set to begin at 10.30pm BST, 3pm IST. TV and live streaming information is below.

India: TV: Star Sports 1, Star Sports 1HD (English, Hindi, Tamil). Live Streaming: Hotstar.

 

Australia: TV: Fox Sports. Live Streaming: Foxtel.

 

New Zealand: TV: Sky Sport 1. Live Streaming: Sky Go NZ.

 

UK: TV: Sky Sports 2. Live Streaming: Sky Go and Watch Sky Sports.

 

USA: TV: Willow TV. Live Streaming: Willow TV Live Online.

 

South Africa: TV: SuperSport 2. Live Streaming: SuperSport Live Video.

 

Middle East: TV: OSN Sports Cricket. Live Streaming: OSN Play.

 

Singapore: TV: Star Cricket.