JASON GILLESPIE has assured England fans that Alastair Cook will be given the toughest possible workout when Yorkshire face the opening batsman in Abu Dhabi next month.

Cook is preparing for England’s Test tour of the West Indies in April and May by turning out for the MCC side in the champion county fixture against Yorkshire between March 22 and 25.

The England captain lines up alongside former national team-mates Nick Compton, Michael Carberry and Graham Onions for what promises to be a mouthwatering clash.

Yorkshire are expected to be able to choose from their strongest possible pool of players aside from those on World Cup duty such as Joe Root, Gary Ballance and overseas recruit Aaron Finch.

Cook will not have played any competitive cricket since England’s one-day tour of Sri Lanka in December, so the Yorkshire clash is hugely important to him ahead of the West Indies, which kicks off a hectic ten months of Test cricket.

“Although I’m sure England supporters would love to see him in the runs, I certainly don’t,” said Gillespie.

“I’m the head coach of Yorkshire, and I want to see us perform well in that game.

“If Alastair scores runs and big ones in that game, well done to him. But we are going to make him earn them and work really hard for them.

“Alastair is the type of character who strives to improve his game. If he comes up against a county side just going through the motions in a pre-season game, that’s not really going to help much. It’s just a glorified pre-season net then.

“But this is a proper first-class game, and we’re going to treat it as such.

“This match is a massive reward for us. It’s a big event for the players, and we’re really looking forward to it.

“We want to go out there and play the best cricket we can and try to win the game.

“How we go about that, the exact make-up of the side, we’ll only know when we get out there. It’s a long season, so we’ll have to be conscious of that. But we want to play that game and do the very best we can.”

Despite scoring 95, 70 not out and 79 in three of his last four Test match innings against India during the summer, Cook has not scored a Test century since May 2013 against New Zealand at Headingley.