Every great story has a subplot. Tomorrow, Yorkshire v Glamorgan, sees the opening chapter of the White Rose’s bid for LV= Insurance County Championship glory. The subplot? Joe Root versus his younger brother Billy.

Of course, this isn’t something new at professional level. The two brothers from Sheffield met in a one-day Cup clash at Trent Bridge when batsman Billy was a Nottinghamshire player.

On that occasion, Yorkshire came out on top, with Joe hitting an unbeaten 75 in pursuit of a 186 target. He even hit Billy’s off-spin for six.But this will be the first time they have faced each other in first-class cricket, assuming 28-year-old Billy takes his place, as expected in the Glamorgan side at Emerald Headingley, tomorrow morning,11am.

Both brothers came through the Yorkshire age-groups as teenagers. However, left-handed batsman Billy played his last second-team game in 2013 and had to forge his path elsewhere.

And he has done it pretty well, though without gaining the same notoriety as England Test captain Joe, aged 30.

Billy has scored five hundreds in 33 first-class appearances - three for Glamorgan, including a career best 229 in a Championship clash with Northamptonshire in 2019.

“It will be an interesting battle, that’s for sure. But I obviously hope Joe comes out on top,” said Yorkshire’s director of cricket Martyn Moxon.

“There’s no doubt Billy is a talented player who has done well recently, particularly at Glamorgan. And we will need to get him out early because he can do some damage if not.”

While Joe made his Yorkshire first-team debut in 2009, in a one-day fixture against Essex, Billy’s first-class debut came six years later for Leeds/Bradford MCC Universities.

His maiden first-team appearance for a county came for Nottinghamshire in early 2017.

That aforementioned meeting with Joe at Trent Bridge was in only his second match as a professional, two days after his debut.

“Players develop at different stages and mature on different timescales,” added Moxon.

“Billy has always had natural talent, but making it at this level and higher is about more than just that. It’s the mental side of the game, making good decisions, having that balance between attack and defence.

“That comes with maturity and playing games, and he seems to have worked all of that out now and has gone on to post some big scores of late.

“I just hope he doesn’t do it this week!”

This will be the first time Yorkshire have played Glamorgan in Championship cricket since 2012, the first year of Jason Gillespie’s coaching tenure when promotion from Division Two was achieved.

The Welsh county finished bottom of last season’s Central Group in the shortened Bob Willis Trophy, going winless in five matches.

They will field Ireland’s captain Andrew Balbirnie as their overseas player for the first month of the season. Australian duo Marnus Labuschagne and Michael Neser will then join the county to fill the two overseas berths in four-day cricket.

Yorkshire coach Andrew Gale said: “They will be a good team. I think they would be a better team had they had the two overseas players coming over in Labuschagne and Neser.

“We haven’t seen them for a long time, but we’ve looked into their players.

“We certainly won’t be going out in that first game thinking, ‘We’re playing a weak Glamorgan team’. They have got some decent players.

“But we know that if we perform the way we can do at Headingley, we’ll get the job done.”