Overton, Bess called up as cover after illness strikes England

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Overton, Bess called up as cover after illness strikes England

Overton last played for England at Old Trafford during the Ashes © Getty

England have been forced to call-up off-spinner Dom Bess and fast-bowler Craig Overton to the Test squad in South Africa after a sickness bug has affected a number of the travelling party. The Somerset pair will arrive in Johannesburg on Saturday morning.

Stuart Broad, Jofra Archer and Jack Leach have not travelled to Benoni for England's three-day warm-up match against South Africa A which begins on Friday (December 20) because of the illness although the rest of the squad are able to participate. That number includes Joe Denly who was struck down by the bug but has now recovered.

Given that the Boxing Day Test begins at Centurion in just six days' time, England have taken the precaution of calling-up cover. Both Overton and Bess have Test match experience. Bess played two matches last summer against Pakistan while Overton was selected for the Old Trafford Test during the Ashes series. Of the two, Bess is the most likely to play at Centurion should Leach not recover.

Because of the bug's effect on England's squad, the practice game at Willowmoore Park has been downgraded from a first-class match. Instead, both teams can rotate their line-ups although only 11 players can bat or field at any one time.

A spokesperson for the England and Wales Cricket Board said: "ECB would like to take this opportunity to thank CSA for their flexibility on this situation and to emphasise that under normal circumstances we would have wanted to play the match first-class, but illness in the camp has made this very problematic."