Yorkshire v Glamorgan: Chris Cooke relishes Root spotlight

Billy Root will face brother and England captain Joe for the first time in four-day cricket

Glamorgan captain Chris Cooke has welcomed the spotlight on their opening Championship game away to Yorkshire on Thursday, thanks to England captain Joe Root facing brother Billy.

It is the first time the brothers have met in four-day cricket.

"It's a great place to start, Yorkshire away, and there's no bigger test if you look back at the history of county cricket," said Cooke.

Glamorgan make their first visit to Yorkshire in any format since 2012.

Yorkshire won that encounter by eight wickets and have been in the first division ever since, with this season's change of format to three groups bringing about the fixture.

Glamorgan's only victory at Headingley came in 1999, when current coach Matthew Maynard hit 186, but Cooke hopes his players will take the chance to seize the headlines.

• Billy Root column: Facing big brother Joe and Headingley return

"Billy's looking forward to it as I'm sure Joe is, it's a chance for people to put their name forward and show what they're about because there'll be a lot of eyes on the game naturally," Cooke said.

The brothers have not met in person since September and Glamorgan's Billy is relishing the return to his native county for several reasons.

"I'm excited because I've not played against Joe for a while so it could be fun, but there's a job to be done. I think he's 3-0 up (in matches between us) so it's time to try to change that," he told BBC Sport Wales.

"Headingley's always a great place for me to go so I'm going to try and enjoy every minute."

Yorkshire coach Andrew Gale says he and his players are comfortable with the tag of favourites for the group.

"I certainly believe in them and they believe in themselves, that's the key thing. We are on paper a strong outfit but you can't just expect to turn up and perform, you've got to put a shift in," he told BBC West Yorkshire Sport.

"We have done quite a bit of homework on them (Glamorgan) because we haven't played them for a number of years, we've had our analysts looking at their batters in particular."

Glamorgan are set to give a debut to either left-arm seamer Jamie McIlroy or James Weighell, their new recruit from Durham, while Ireland captain Andrew Balbirnie makes his first Championship appearance for the Welsh side.

Yorkshire squad: Bess, Brook, Coad, Fisher, Loten, Lyth, Olivier, Patterson (capt), J Root, Tattersall, Kohler-Cadmore, Willey.

Glamorgan squad: Selman, Lloyd, Balbirnie, W Root, Carlson, C Cooke (capt), Taylor, Douthwaite, Cullen, van der Gugten, McIlroy, Weighell, Hogan.