The International Cricket Council has allowed the West Indies to reinstate young batsman Marlon Samuels to their 15-member World Cup team.

The 22-year-old Jamaican right-hander was withdrawn from the original squad following a bothersome knee injury and replaced by left-hander Ryan Hinds before the twice world champions left for southern Africa.

Initial medical reports suggested that the promising batsman, a key member of the West Indies' middle-order, would be out of action for at least three months in order to have corrective surgery and a bone graft. But the West Indies Cricket Board, after receiving encouraging news about his injury, made a formal request to the ICC requesting that Samuels be reinstated in time for the tournament opener against host nation South Africa, at Newlands on Sunday.

The ICC's six-man technical committee, headed by Malcolm Speed, discussed the application and formally cleared Samuels to replace Hinds.

Samuels has played 39 one-dayers and scored 1,087 runs, including a top score of 108 not out, off just 77 balls, in the recent one-day series against India at Vijayawada.