West Indies have fortified their batting by bringing Ryan Hinds and Lendl Simmons into their squad for the second Test against England, starting on Friday at the Vivian Richards Cricket Ground.

Though West Indies would have few complaints about their batting in the opening Test, which they won by an innings and 23 runs at Sabina Park to take a 1-0 lead in the four-Test series, Hinds and Simmons have been rewarded for strong performances in the last few weeks.

They replace Xavier Marshall and Amit Jaggernauth in the squad, with the injury to uncapped opener Dale Richards ruling him out of consideration for selection.

No justice

Marshall, whose place in the side was in serious question, did his chances no justice, when he fell for a two-ball duck in the only innings West Indies batted, and off-spinner Jaggernauth did not play and was sent home to take part in the WICB regional four-day competition over the weekend.

Hinds currently leads the batting aggregates in the regional first-class competition with 585 runs for his native Barbados at an average of 83.57. This includes a career-best 240 against the Leewards, and 134 against Guyana over the weekend.

He has also taken 18 wickets at 18.66 with his left-arm spin. Simmons has played eight One-day Internationals for the West Indies, but he must now feel his Test debut is imminent, following a first-class career best 282 for West Indies-A in England's second tour match in St Kitts just prior to the first Test.

Few options

The inclusion of Hinds and Simmons offers the selectors a few options for Antigua, since right now there is only place up for consideration in the batting, and that's the position vacated by Marshall.

The selectors could, however, take the hard decision and break Devon Smith's heart on Friday morning and penalise him by allowing Simmons to open the batting, a situation with which he is not altogether unfamiliar, leaving Hinds to slot into the number four position.