Root ‘very optimistic’ about home Tests against Windies

England captain Joe Root has said he's "very optimistic" Test cricket will need place in the 2020 home season whether or not which means the squad need to go into a lot more than two months' of quarantine.

With Britain currently in lockdown as a result of the coronavirus, a three-Test series against the West Indies scheduled for June has been postponed, with Pakistan because of visit later in a season whose start has been delayed until July 1 at the initial.

In a bid to salvage the most lucrative matches carrying out a warning from England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) leader Tom Harrison a totally destroyed season could cost the board 380 million, Root said as long as the British government relaxed rules sufficiently to allow matches just do it, some international matches could yet be salvaged from an otherwise possibly barren campaign.

"I'm very optimistic, hopefully which can be the case and it would be a real shame if it wasn't," he told the Cricket show on Sky Sports on Thursday.

"I think a number of folks are desperate to see live sport back on telly and the people are all quite definitely missing playing and would wish to get back out there."

Root praised the recent input of ECB medics as he stressed: "Safety is paramount and we need to ensure everyone involved is absolutely safe.

"I'm sure the discussions will progress and we'll get more information and get closer and nearer to cricket being back on and international cricket being played."

One plan is always to have all internationals played at Hampshire's Ageas Bowl and Lancashire's Old Trafford as these grounds, with on-site hotels, offer better 'bio-security' than other venues. Nonetheless it could put a strain on players' private and family lives if indeed they were not able, as is normal in a home season, to go back home between matches.

Nevertheless Yorkshire batsman Root, whose wife Carrie is expecting their second child, said he and his team-mates could cope.

But Root, acknowledging the necessity for England to be "flexible" in times that could "drastically change" in the coming weeks, added "we have to find safe means of getting away from the bubble".