Joe Root heads off for England duty confident Yorkshire will be County Championship promotion contenders

The former England Test captain has been a regular for the club since the start of the season but, after Friday night’s T20 Blast contest at Durham, he will depart, ready to begin preparations for the forthcoming three-game series against the West Indies which starts at Lord’s on July 10.

So far this summer, the red-ball game has proved a source of frustration for Root and Yorkshire, with Ottis Gibson’s team still waiting for their first win after seven games in a season where many bookies’ had them down as favourites for promotion when it began.

At the halfway stage and despite sitting second-bottom in the standings, there is still plenty of time for Yorkshire to turn things around, particularly as they are only 32 points behind leaders Sussex.

Sunday brings a return to the four-day format for Yorkshire after recently switching to the opening spell of the Vitality T20 Blast when they make a first visit of the season to Scarborough to take on Gloucestershire.

They then take on bottom side Derbyshire at Queen’s Park in Chesterfield a week later before resuming their 20-over campaign against Warwickshire at Headingley on Friday, July 5.

A return to the County Championship doesn’t materialise then until the last week of August, by which time Root hopes the team will have started to put themselves in contention for promotion.

“It’s been really good coming back and playing,” said Root. “Over the last couple of years, there have not been too many opportunities for me to do that.

“I’ve really enjoyed it, but it’s been a bit frustrating because I think we’ve played a lot better in the games I’ve been around for than our place in the Championship suggests.

“The four games we’ve drawn that I’ve been involved in, we were hammering the opposition in them all.

“If we don’t get any weather issues, you’re realistically looking at four wins and a couple of losses. Then the table looks completely different.

“That being said, there are still so many games left and there’s no reason why we can’t turn it around and find ourselves right up at the top come the back end of the season.”

Root has scored two centuries and two 50s in the Championship this summer, contributing 446 runs in five matches.

He has also made some decent contributions in the T20 Blast, three times scoring 30 or more as Yorkshire – before last night’s Roses game – recorded three out of their first six games.

It is a format in which Root admits he has had to adapt over the years, last week passing the 50-game mark for the Vikings.

“I reckon I’ve pretty much batted in every position in those 50 games,” he added.

“It’s been an experience having to manage different situations and almost being the guy – at times – who has been pushed down when we need to get on with it.

“But you evolve as a player and find different ways to do it. It’s always difficult when you don’t get blocks and chunks of time to play in this format because it’s one you can get real momentum in. Even so, it’s been great fun.”