[themaclad]

England have named Dom Bess as their spinner in a 13-man squad for the first Test against West Indies, which begins on Wednesday.

Off-spinner Bess is chosen ahead of Jack Leach and Moeen Ali, who is not among the list of nine reserves.

Rory Burns, Dom Sibley, Zak Crawley and Joe Denly will be the top four in the absence of Joe Root, who misses out for the birth of his second child.

Ben Stokes will stand in as captain for Root in Southampton.

England squad: Ben Stokes (capt), James Anderson, Jofra Archer, Dominic Bess, Stuart Broad, Rory Burns, Jos Buttler (wk), Zak Crawley, Joe Denly, Ollie Pope, Dom Sibley, Chris Woakes, Mark Wood.

Reserves: James Bracey, Sam Curran, Ben Foakes (wk), Dan Lawrence, Jack Leach, Saqib Mahmood, Craig Overton, Ollie Robinson, Olly Stone.

Stokes will become England's 81st Test skipper and the first all-rounder to take charge since Andrew Flintoff.

One of his first decisions will be the make-up of the pace bowling attack, with the coronavirus lockdown that has prevented England from playing Test cricket since January resulting in a fully fit complement of fast bowlers.

Pace bowlers James Anderson, Stuart Broad, Jofra Archer, Mark Wood and Chris Woakes will vie for what are likely to be three places in the team.

Sam Curran, who may also have been in contention before falling ill during a practice match this week, is among the reserves.

He is joined on the back-up list by fellow seamers Craig Overton, Ollie Robinson, Olly Stone and Saqib Mahmood, and left-arm spinner Leach.








Looks like Moeen and Bairstow slipping down the pecking order