England call up Dominic Bess, Craig Overton as cover ahead of 1st Test against South Africa

Somerset bowlers Dominic Bess and Craig Overton have been called up by England as cover ahead of the first Test starting on Boxing Day against South Africa due to illness in the camp.

Bess and Overton are due to arrive in Johannesburg on Saturday morning.

Due to widespread illness in the England camp, the match against South Africa A starting at Willowmoore Park today has been downgraded to a three-day friendly tour match with only 11 players batting or fielding at any point in time. The playing conditions remain as previously agreed upon.

A spokesperson for the England and Wales Cricket Board said in an official statement: "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."

England 17-member squad for Test series: Joe Root, James Anderson, Jofra Archer, Jonny Bairstow, Stuart Broad, Rory Burns, Jos Buttler, Zak Crawley, Sam Curran, Joe Denly, Jack Leach, Matt Parkinson, Ollie Pope, Dom Sibley, Ben Stokes, Chris Woakes, Mark Wood.

South Africa will host England for the four-match Test series which will be a part of the ICC World Test Championship (WTC). The Test series will be followed by three ODIs and as many T20Is.

The first Test will be played at Centurion from December 26.