Joe Root: England batter to play Yorkshire's first three T20 Blast games

Joe Root has scored 234 runs in four County Championship innings for Yorkshire this season

Joe Root will be available for the first three games of Yorkshire Vikings' T20 Blast campaign.

The former England Test captain will play against Worcestershire Royals at Headingley on Wednesday, and in further games on Friday and Sunday.

Team-mate Harry Brook, who has also been called up for England's first Test against New Zealand at Lord's on 2 June, will also play in the matches.

The Vikings reached the last eight in last year's T20 competition.

Root has played three County Championship matches for Yorkshire since stepping down from his England role, making one century and a 50 in the Roses fixture earlier this month.

But before heading off for his first Test without the pressures of captaincy since December 2016, he will line up against the Royals, then in the Roses T20 game against Lancashire Lightning on Friday and, finally, the home game with Leicestershire Foxes two days later.

As well as Root and Brook, the Vikings can count upon England white-ball players Adil Rashid and Dawid Malan, at least until the 50-over series with the Netherlands next month.

Meanwhile, the Pakistan duo of fast bowler Haris Rauf and leg-spinner Shadab Khan are available for Yorkshire's opening four games, before their own international commitments.

However, the Vikings' T20 captain David Willey will not play as he is still involved in the Indian Premier League with Royal Challengers Bangalore.

Yorkshire are one of only five counties never to win the T20 Blast and they have only reached Finals Day twice - in 2012 and 2016 - but they finished second in North Group in 2021, only to lose to Sussex Sharks in the quarter-finals.