Harry Kane and Gareth Southgate are not strangers, having worked together at Under-21 level, but Saturday's World Cup qualifier in Scotland will be the first time England's senior manager gets to use his top striker.
Southgate's six matches in charge so far have coincided with injuries that prevented Tottenham's talisman from winning his second consecutive Premier League Golden Boot by an even greater margin -- his 29 goals from 30 league games were four clear of Everton's Romelu Lukaku, who played 37.
England's manager has dispensed with Wayne Rooney, after 119 matches and 53 goals, meaning Kane, 12 months on from his career low at Euro 2016, should become an automatic choice for years to come.
Speaking at St George's Park on Tuesday, the 23-year-old stated his ambitions to be considered in the very top bracket of the game, alongside the likes of Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo.
"I love to score and affect the game, so hopefully I can boost it up over the next three, four, five, six years, carry it on for the rest of my international career and be classed as one of those top, top players," he said.
And two former England strikers told ESPN FC this week that there was no one better to lead the line for the country now.
"You'd have to put him down as the No. 1 striker, look at the amount of goals he's scored," said Les Ferdinand, ex-Tottenham striker and now QPR's director of football, who worked with Kane in Spurs' youth setup.
"He's gone from strength to strength. He had a good first year and everyone asked if he could do it again, which happens with everyone. He won the Golden Boot then everyone asked what he would do the next year after that, and he's gone and won it again. He can't do anymore than what he's doing at the moment."
Former Arsenal striker Alan Smith, top scorer in the old First Division in 1988-89, added: "With Wayne Rooney's demotion, he's very much the main man. And rightly so after what he's done for Tottenham over the last two years. It's him plus whoever, whatever shape they play."
Kane has drawn comparisons to Alan Shearer, but his ability to drop back and create brings comparison with another England striker of that 1990s era. "He's not exactly the same as Shearer," Smith said. "Shearer was depending on that power a bit more. His overall game and target-man qualities and the fact he could run the channels, he could head the ball and keep the ball, in the way Harry can. That's probably the closest comparison."
Ferdinand added: "I had him as a cross between Alan [Shearer] and Teddy [Sheringham]. He's heading more towards an Alan, but he's still got the traits of Teddy, to drop into midfield, that intelligence."
Kane's lofty ambitions to be among the world's best are very much in character, according to Ferdinand.
"He's very determined, he's got that trait that most top strikers have, that little bit of arrogance without it being real arrogance," he said. "It's a confidence that he's going to achieve what he needs to achieve and that's half the battle. He's got great mental strength."
Kane has exhibited that self-assurance since making his breakthrough as a Spurs player in November 2014, when scoring a late free kick to grab a 2-1 win at Aston Villa.
"I was at Villa Park when [Mauricio] Pochettino put him on as a sub," Smith said. "That he took it tells you something of him and how his teammates regarded him. It took deflection off the wall, a bit lucky but he'd won the match and he was off then. He's never looked back."
Only during the summers of 2015 and 2016, playing in Southgate's failed Under-21 European Championship mission, and then under Roy Hodgson in France, has Kane lacked his characteristic swagger. At Euro 2016, he was almost unrecognisable, and despite five goals in 17 senior matches, England is yet to see the best of him. But Ferdinand believes it is only a matter of time.
"You need to make the step [to become an England player], you need the ability, which he's certainly got," he said. "It's a case of becoming comfortable in that environment, and being given the time.
"Lot of players get one or two games and then they're out. I think Harry will be given the games to establish himself. I think he will become the player everyone's expecting to see at club level. Hopefully, it becomes a club environment on the international stage."
Buoyed by his end-of-season form for Spurs, the game against Scotland offers Kane a chance to bury the ghosts of last summer and cement his place as England's leading man.