Chris Jordan has been named in a 16-man England Test squad for their tour of South Africa next month.

The Sussex star got the nod over Liam Plunkett for the fifth seamer's spot alongside Jimmy Anderson, Stuart Broad, Chris Woakes and Mark Footitt.

Jordan lost his Test place to Mark Wood during the series against New Zealand at the start of last summer before injury ruined his chances of being involved in the Ashes.

He was called up as a late replacement for the injured Steven Finn for the recent Test series against Pakistan in the UAE but did not feature in either of the final two matches.

Finn was deemed not fit enough for the trip to South Africa and a further injury to Mark Wood opened the door for Jordan.

England have also dropped veteran batsman Ian Bell with Nick Compton and Gary Ballance earning recalls.

Bell's omission comes in the wake of a series of below-par performances from the 33-year-old, who has scored just one Test century since July 2014.

National selector James Whitaker said: ''Ian Bell has been an outstanding player for many years and undoubtedly still has plenty to offer England in the future.

''It was clearly a difficult decision but he has struggled for runs in recent series and we felt that it was the right time for him to take a break and spend time working on his game out of the spotlight.''

Adil Rashid has been left out of the squad with England deciding the conditions in South Africa mean the chances of playing two spinners are ''extremely remote''.

Moeen Ali and Samit Patel will be England's frontline spinners for the four-Test series, with Rashid now set to travel to Australia to play for a Big Bash franchise,

England squad: Cook (Essex), Ali (Worcestershire), Anderson (Lancashire), Bairstow (Yorkshire), Ballance (Yorkshire), Broad (Nottinghamshire), Buttler (Lancashire), Compton (Middlesex), Footitt (Surrey), Hales (Nottinghamshire), Jordan (Sussex), Patel (Nottinghamshire), Root (Yorkshire), Stokes (Durham), Taylor (Nottinghamshire), Woakes (Warwickshire).