England batsman Joe Root has signed a two-year contract extension to stay with his native county Yorkshire until at least December 2016.

Root, 23, is currently out injured with a badly-broken thumb but is hoping to return for Yorkshire this month and then for England at the start of their international summer.

His 955 Test runs, since his debut in December 2012, include a top score of 180 as an opener at Lord’s in last summer’s Ashes series.

He subsequently went down the order and then lost his place during England’s whitewash in Australia last winter.

But he signed off with a one-day international century against the West Indies in March – despite having his right thumb broken when he had just a single to his name in that innings.

That blow kept him out of England’s unsuccessful World Twenty20 campaign in Bangladesh.

But Yorkshire are not expecting to be without Root for long, having identified the LV= County Championship match against Middlesex on April 27 as his probable comeback date.