TEST captain Joe Root has urged his county team-mates and domestic batsmen up and down the land to follow Adam Lyth’s lead in order to help both Yorkshire and England progress as teams.

Lyth has enjoyed a stunning start to the new LV= Insurance County Championship campaign, posting scores of 52, 115 not out, 97 and 116 in two matches.

The White Rose opener is the leading run-scorer in the competition after two rounds of fixtures with 380.

There have already been three double-centuries from England players present and past in Ollie Pope, James Vince and Tom Westley, along with a host of other 150-plus scores.

And, not surprisingly, that is something which has delighted Root, who posted a century of his own in the second innings of Yorkshire’s victory at Kent last weekend.

“If you look around the county scores, there’s been a number of magnificent contributions from a number of different guys,” said Root. “Long may that continue because it will benefit the national team.

“You’ve seen that competition for places with the seam bowling in the last couple of years. If we (England) can get that in all departments, we’re going to keep getting better and move in an upward trajectory.”

Lyth, aged 33, is the current standard-bearer for batsmen across county cricket. But, more importantly, he is the man to look up to for the rest of Yorkshire’s batting group as they bid to live up to pre-season suggestions the county could challenge for the Championship title.

Inevitably, should Lyth continue this type of form against Sussex at Hove from today and for a couple more weeks after, the topic of an England recall will be discussed.

It is the same with the likes of Tom Kohler-Cadmore and Harry Brook, the latter who has also started 2021 in fine form - 220 runs with three fifties - and the former who needs a score to kickstart his campaign.

“The more guys who are putting their hands up and making big scores, wherever it is in the order, are gains for the England team,” continued Root. “We want that competition for places and people to be churning out big hundreds.

“It’s something I’ve spoken quite a lot about recently.

“If we’re going to develop as a Test team and consistently go out and get 450 - big first-innings runs - guys need to be doing it in first-class cricket.

“That’s not necessarily because conditions mirror what you get in a Test match, but the mentality is so important.

“That’s being able to bat long periods of time, being able to go up and down the gears if someone bowls a good spell at you - managing your innings and going through that five or six hours it takes to go and get a hundred."