• Batsman averaged 65 this summer in One-Day Cup campaign • Left-hander has taken a circuitous route into the game

Billy Root has been rewarded for his persistence in the pursuit of a cricket career after landing his first senior professional contract at Nottinghamshire.

Root, the 25-year-old batsman and younger brother of the England Test captain Joe Root, is understood to have agreed a two‑year deal at Trent Bridge after two seasons on developmental terms, having impressed Peter Moores, the head coach, and Mick Newell, the director of cricket, during the club’s victorious Royal London Cup campaign this summer.

The left-hander’s journey has been one of perseverance while his older sibling has risen serenely to the pinnacle of the game. Having similarly come through the academy at Yorkshire, the younger Root was released in 2011 and spent two years on the MCC Young Cricketers scheme, even appearing as a substitute fielder during the 2013 Ashes Test at Lord’s.

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From there Root turned out for Suffolk, in the Minor Counties Championship, and the second XIs of Worcestershire, Leicestershire, Middlesex and Surrey in the hope of catching the eye. He began a degree in sports business management at Leeds Metropolitan University, believing the dream to be fading, but regular cricket with the Notts seconds from 2015 convinced him to press on.

A County Championship debut followed against Somerset at the back end of 2016 and though he had already struck a maiden first-class hundred for Leeds/Bradford MCCU against Sussex earlier that summer, his true breakthrough came in the group stages of the Royal London Cup this year with an unbeaten 107 from 93 balls against Warwickshire at Edgbaston.

Root played nine games in total and averaged 65 across the 50-over campaign, although he missed out on a place in the final as Alex Hales, whose return from England duty had squeezed him out of the XI, struck an unbeaten 187 to help Nottinghamshire defeat Surrey by four wickets.

The hope at Trent Bridge now is that by giving Root the security of a two-year deal this late developer can continue forging his own identity and as an attacking middle-order batsman, electric fielder and handy off-spinner, the white-ball formats are considered his forte at present.