England star Joe Root lines up for Yorkshire after 19-month gap

Root last played a Championship game for Yorkshire in September 2014 against Somerset at Headingley.

But after a short break to recover from his hectic international winter, Root is pencilled in for a return to four-day action against Notts at Trent Bridge from May 1.

The 25-year-old has also been made available for the Championship fixture against Surrey at Headingley from May 8 ahead of the opening Test of the summer against Sri Lanka at Leeds on May 19.

Yorkshire will have the rest of their England stars available for the first quarter of the Championship programme, which begins against Hampshire at Headingley on April 17 and continues with a trip to Warwickshire prior to the match at Notts.

Jonny Bairstow, Gary Ballance, Adil Rashid, Liam Plunkett and David Willey have all been granted permission to play.

The availability of Plunkett and Willey offsets the injury to Tim Bresnan, who is set to miss the opening six weeks of the campaign with a calf tear.

It means Yorkshire will be in the rare position of finding themselves at pretty much full-strength as they embark on their quest to win a hat-trick of Championships, something no county has done since they themselves achieved it in 1968.

England Test captain Alastair Cook has been made available for Essex’s opening four Championship matches, with the early rounds of the competition set to be an intriguing battle for Test places.

Yorkshire themselves are due to line-up against a number of England players in the form of Hampshire’s Liam Dawson, Reece Topley and James Vince; Warwickshire’s Chris Woakes; Notts’ Alex Hales, Samit Patel and James Taylor; and Surrey’s Jason Roy and Mark Footitt.