Thursday 12 May 2016 12:14, UK
Uncapped Jake Ball and James Vince have been named in a 12-man England squad for the first Test against Sri Lanka.
Hampshire captain Vince has international experience in limited-overs cricket, and his inclusion was widely expected after James Taylor's sudden retirement left a space in the batting order.
Seam bowler Ball, who has 19 wickets for Nottinghamshire in Division One of this season's Specsavers County Championship, earns his first call-up after a winter spent with the England Lions and at a fast-bowling camp in South Africa.
Chris Woakes, Chris Jordan, Mark Footitt and Liam Plunkett, all of whom were part of the senior squad that toured South Africa, are left out.
Top-order batsmen Alex Hales and Nick Compton retain their places in the squad despite averaging 17 and 30.62 during the winter Tests.
The first Test starts at Headingley next Thursday, and national selector James Whitaker said: "Both Jake Ball and James Vince thoroughly deserve their opportunity having performed well with the England Lions and starting the season in good form with their respective counties.
"Building on his success with the Lions in the winter, Jake has impressed with the ball and shown excellent control and skill in the opening matches of the County Championship. If selected, we are confident he will perform very well at international level.
"James has been a consistent performer for Hampshire and England Lions over the past few years. He is already well regarded by the England coaches in the short format and now has the opportunity to showcase his skills at Test level."
England play three Tests, five ODIs and one T20 against Sri Lanka before taking on Pakistan across all three formats, and the ECB has named a 30-man performance squad for the summer.
Director of England cricket Andrew Strauss said: "This is the first time in two seasons we have selected an England Performance Squad. I feel that it is important that we do so to enable our staff to monitor effectively those players who are on our radar, but not necessarily part of one of the England teams.
"It is also important to point out that it does not confine the selectors to pick from this squad."
Test squad: Cook (capt), Ali, Anderson, Bairstow, Ball, Broad, Compton, Finn, Hales, Root, Stokes, Vince.
Performance squad: Ali, Anderson, Ansari, Bairstow, Ball, Ballance, Bell, Billings, Broad, Buttler, Compton, Cook, T Curran, Dawson, Finn, Footitt, Hales, Jordan, Morgan, J Overton, Plunkett, Rashid, Root, Roy, Stokes, Topley, Vinc, Willey, Woakes, Wood.
