This is what you play for, years like this one: Root

England Test skipper Joe Root is looking forward to the challenge of facing New Zealand, India and Australia in the space of the next seven-eight months. England are scheduled to play two Tests against the Black Caps before playing five more against India in August-September. They will then travel to Australia for the Ashes. The 30-year-old also said that England's new-look selection panel - led by the head coach Chris Silverwood - will find it difficult to manage the workload of the players.

"It's very difficult at the minute, the circumstances make it very tricky. You've got to factor in so many different things and the welfare of the players is obviously paramount. But this is what you play for, years like this one. You want to pit yourself against the best, you want to be successful against the best, and this is the opportunity to do it." Root told Sky Sports during Yorkshire's ongoing County Championship game against Glamorgan in Cardiff.

Ed Smith was removed as national selector last month and Root will now have to work even more closely with Silverwood to hit the right balance while picking players for the upcoming series. "It's always a tricky balance. What you're trying to do is create that environment where you've got a strong squad of players that have been together for a good period of time, but no one going in cold," said Root about picking new faces for the New Zealand series.

"You can't plan everything perfectly, especially at the minute with Covid. There might be natural opportunities where things arise, there might not be, but the most important thing is that we remain very open-minded about how we want to move going forward. We've got some really important cricket coming up. And we've got to prioritise that. So when we sit down, we'll factor in everything as best we can, and make sure that we've got a real clear idea of how we want to go, how we want the year to look, and how we're going to peak for that tour of Australia."

England leapfrogged their arch-rivals Australia to become the third-ranked Test team, but are still behind New Zealand and India. England thumped Sri Lanka in Sri Lanka but lost to India 1-3. Root said his team has made "good strides" recently and will try to be at their peak when they tour Australia. "We've made good strides over the last couple of years as a Test team. It's not been plain sailing, we've not had it all our own way, but we still improved.

"I truly believe we are making good strides in the right direction, and now we've got an opportunity to keep improving, keep getting better and peak for Australia, which is the pinnacle for us."