England duo Joe Root and Jonny Bairstow made unavailable for Yorkshire title run-in

Yorkshire will not be able to call upon the services of England batsmen Joe Root and Jonny Bairstow as they aim to seal a third consecutive County Championship title. Jason Gillespie's side currently trail Middlesex by just four points at the summit of Division One with home matches against Durham and Somerset to come at Headingley before a final day trip to Lord's on 20 September.

"The Yorkshire County Cricket Club have been advised by the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) that Joe Root and Jonny Bairstow will not be available for the rest of the Specsavers County Championship season," Yorkshire CCC confirmed in a quick update released via their official website on Monday afternoon (5 September).

"A decision on the availability of David Willey, Adil Rashid and Liam Plunkett will be made after Wednesday's NatWest IT20 between England and Pakistan."

Root has endured a typically busy summer with England in home series' against both Sri Lanka and Pakistan and will line up for his country once again on Wednesday (7 September) as the latter finish off their tour with a one-off Twenty20 clash at Emirates Old Trafford.

Bairstow, meanwhile, also played in all seven of those summer tests before being drafted in as a late replacement for the four-wicket ODI win on home territory last Thursday.

He certainly made the most of an unexpected opportunity that came after Lancashire rival Jos Buttler complained of a tight hamstring during the warm-up, batting brilliantly alongside Ben Stokes to notch a match-winning 61 runs from 83 balls. The 26-year-old, man of the series against Sri Lanka who is not in the T20 squad to face Pakistan, also stumped Mohammad Nawaz. Root and Bairstow made nine and 33 respectively in Sunday's loss at Sophia Gardens that wrecked hopes of an impressive whitewash.

After rounding off their summer fixtures, England are scheduled to travel to Dhaka on 30 September to begin a controversial tour of Bangladesh that is slated to include three tour matches, three ODIs and two Test matches in late October.

The ECB confirmed last month that the trip would still go ahead as planned after a thorough risk analysis in the aftermath of July's terrorist attacks and a "full assessment of facilities and operations". In November, England move on to India for a five-test series.