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 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, as well as 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 over the weekend.

“If you look around the county scores already, 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 Thursday and then beyond that, 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 has also started 2021 in fine form - 220 runs with three fifties - but the former 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.”

While Lyth would love to increase the tally of the seven Test caps that he won in the summer of 2015, he is desperate to add to the two Championship titles he won in 2014 and 2015 and needs others to step up around him to ensure that aim is achieved.

“Not only has Lythy gone on and made a good score, he’s backing them up now. And that’s really important,” said Root.

“You need your senior players to stand up, churn those runs out and lead the way for what is still quite a young team.

“They want to be looking and saying, ‘Right, I need to do that, that’s the standard. We can’t be happy with thirties, forties and fifties, we need to make big hundreds’.

“That is what wins you Championships.”

Root scored 101 in the second innings of the win against Kent on the back of scores of 16 and 13 in the opening round draw against Glamorgan and 11 in the first innings at Canterbury.

He will wear the White Rose again at Sussex, with him admitting the aim of winning games for his beloved county outweighs the still vitally important need to prepare for England’s early June Test series against New Zealand.

Root added: “I’ve changed a few things technically over the last six months, and I haven’t had the opportunity to face a lot of seam against it.

“I obviously faced a high volume of spin this winter (in Sri Lanka and India) and felt I played quite nicely in those conditions. But this is a good opportunity to bed that technique in and feel really comfortable with it ahead of an important 12 months of cricket.

“To get some time in the middle was really valuable from that side of things.

“But, while you can look down the line towards Test Matches and stuff when coming back to county cricket, you just want to win games at the end of the day.”