Yorkshire CCC boosted by Joe Root return as focus shifts in quest for success

“That was said months ago,” someone pointed out, with Root’s availability having already been flagged, with the post containing a link to tickets (a good marketing tactic).

“Seems to me this team’s biggest problem is its supporters’ definition of support,” another piped up. “One of our greatest ever batsmen is available to play for us, as he begins to wind down his prolific international career, and all we can do is make sarcastic comments.”

Root’s availability for the first seven matches will be welcomed by everybody of course, including those with a mordant wit, and it should help to put bums on seats as the club prepares to start its T20 campaign against Worcestershire at Headingley on Thursday (6.30pm start).

That the great man’s presence is no guarantee of success, however, is a statement of fact; Root has played 45 times in a competition Yorkshire have never won (the only other clubs never to have done so are Derbyshire, Durham, Glamorgan and Gloucestershire).

In fact, Yorkshire have yet to win any game this season despite Root appearing in five of their seven County Championship fixtures and contributing 442 runs at an average of 55.25, with two hundreds and two fifties.

If Root’s availability has given everybody a lift, not least the club’s marketing department, then supporters will hope that the shift in focus from Championship to T20 will be similarly advantageous.

The pall of gloom hanging over Yorkshire at present feels rather suffocating, with the club second-bottom of the Championship Second Division and winless in 30 of 34 four-day fixtures dating back to the start of the 2022 season.

Even in this era of ultra-professionalism, of more data and backroom staff than you shake a stick at, the beauty of the T20 Blast, if “beauty” is the right word, is that it is, at heart, essentially about fun.

Granted, clubs want to win and indeed throw good money at the aspiration - Yorkshire have forked out on many overseas signings and have another this time in Donovan Ferreira - but as much as winning remains the overriding priority for everybody involved, there is also a sense of “freeing-up” and enjoyment when it comes to T20, which has a timely feel for Yorkshire right now.

Heaven knows that they and their supporters could do with some enjoyment, with this the first of three T20s in four days before Yorkshire have a full week without a first XI match.

After Thursday comes a trip to Leicestershire the following day and, 48 hours later, a swift return to Wantage Road, that most delightful of venues, before Derbyshire visit Leeds the following Sunday.

In addition to Root, Yorkshire will have at their disposal Dawid Malan, who no longer plays red-ball, and the aforementioned Ferreira, the 25-year-old South African wicketkeeper-batsman.

Darren Gough, the former managing director of cricket, identified Ferreira as someone who could make an impact as a player on the fringes of international selection, and who would therefore most likely be available; he arrives at the club straight from a stint with Rajasthan Royals in the Indian Premier League.

Perhaps the key question for Yorkshire, who finished second-bottom last year in the nine-team North Group, is whether they have sufficient depth bowling-wise.

They have lost Matt Milnes and Mickey Edwards to stress fractures, while Ben Coad and Matty Fisher have also been injured, with the club signing the Sri Lankan pace bowler Vishwa Fernando as temporary Championship cover.

What they do have, though, is a number of spin bowlers, both frontline and part-time, with the ability to cause problems in any form of cricket.

Dom Bess and Dan Moriarty are the recognised specialists, but do not overlook young Jafer Chohan, the up-and-coming leg-spinner, with Root and Adam Lyth providing strong spin support.

Worcestershire reached the quarter-finals last year but have an underwhelming T20 record against Yorkshire.

They have won only twice in nine visits to Headingley (in 2015 and 2019), where Yorkshire have beaten them seven times – most recently last June, when a brilliant hundred from James Wharton inspired a 26-run triumph.

His unbeaten 111 from just 56 balls, with 16 fours and three sixes, was Yorkshire’s eighth T20 century, three of which have come against Worcestershire, with David Willey taking them for 118 at Headingley in 2017 and Jonny Bairstow for 112 at New Road in 2021.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​