Joe Root has been told by England he cannot put himself forward as a replacement in next season's Indian Premier League after giving him permission to play in Australia's Big Bash.

It was confirmed on Thursday night that both Root and Jos Buttler will take part in the first half of the Big Bash season this winter for Sydney Thunder in between England's tours of Sri Lanka and West Indies.

However England are conscious of workloads ahead of what will arguably be their busiest ever summer next year and certainly one of the most important in memory when they stage the World Cup and then the Ashes.

Joe Root has been told by England he cannot put himself forward for next year's IPL

So Root has been told he cannot put himself forward for any places that may become available in IPL squads next April to allow him to rest ahead of the huge challenges next summer.

Interestingly, the same does not appear to apply to Buttler even though he now plays in all formats for England.

It is questionable whether Root should play in any Twenty20 franchise cricket at a time when he has so much on his plate and could do with concentrating on both his batting and captaincy at Test level.

Yet he is adamant he wants to prove himself in the shorter and most lucrative format after losing his England Twenty20 place and sees the Big Bash as the perfect platform to do that.

The ECB want the Test skipper fresh for a summer of World Cup and Ashes action

There is no room in the Big Bash for Ben Stokes, as predicted by Sportsmail, with Australian clubs reluctant to hire him after their own players in Steve Smith and David Warner were treated so harshly in their ball-tampering scandal.

Australians did not want to be seen to be hiring Stokes, who was last week cleared of affray in Bristol Crown Court but who faces a disciplinary commission, while their own players were serving year-long suspensions.

One Twenty20 competition Stokes will be playing in is Friday night's Blast quarter-final for Durham against Sussex after the ECB did a u-turn on his availability.

Stokes had originally been ruled out with a a knee 'niggle' but England's medical staff have relented and agreed to let him play as a batsman only after pressure from Durham.