Joe Root available for Yorkshire’s County Championship opening matches

The news, which was confirmed by White Rose coach Andrew Gale, opens the door to a potential family reunion with younger brother Billy when Glamorgan visit Headingley for the season opener on Thursday, April 8.

Joe will also be available to face Kent at Canterbury the following week amid a busy summer schedule.

Gale said: “There’s obviously a hell of a lot of Championship cricket before the first Test (against New Zealand on June 2). I think there’s seven or eight games. So we have to be mindful of his workloads.

“But I can confirm he will be playing the first two games of the season, and then we’re going to take it on a week by week basis and communicate how he’s feeling, what form he’s in, how much he wants to play.”

As well as the two-test series against New Zealand in June, England will play five tests against India this summer, starting on Wednesday, 4 August.

Root will also play for Nottingham’s Trent Rockets in the inaugural Hundred competition, delayed from 2020 because of the coronavirus pandemic.

That competition will now take place from July 21 to August 21 between the first round of County Championship fixtures, which conclude on 14 July, and subsequent divisional stages beginning on 30 August.

Gale continued: “I wouldn’t imagine he will play every game [for Yorkshire].

“His runs are priceless, but to have Joe around the dressing room as well, he’s a great bloke. The lads love having him around, and he loves wearing the White Rose.”

Root has been rested for England’s three-match one-day international (ODI) series against India, which began on Tuesday and will continue on Friday and Sunday.

Further ODI matches against Sri Lanka and Pakistan are scheduled in late June and early July.

Yorkshire will begin the 18-team County Championship in group three with Kent, Lancashire, Northamptonshire, Glamorgan and Sussex.

The top two counties will progress into the six-team Division One for the four-match divisional stages to decide who will become county champions.

The winner and runner-up from Division One will then contest the five-day Bob Willis Trophy final at Lord's, scheduled to start on Tuesday 27 September.