Queenslander James Hopes has been placed on standby for injured Australian World Cup all-rounder Shane Watson, chairman of selectors Andrew Hilditch said.

Watson injured his left calf muscle while bowling in Australia's 10-wicket win over Bangladesh in Antigua last weekend and is now in doubt for the rest of the tournament, which concludes with the final in Barbados on April 28.

"We have also put James Hopes on as a shadow player for Shane Watson," Hilditch said at a team training session at the Stanford ground, near Antigua's airport.

"It's not with a move to Shane leaving the group. The intention and the expectation is that Shane will recover and play a vital part in the World Cup.

"We have no domestic cricket in Australia at the moment so we have taken the liberty of naming James a shadow player.

"He has joined the centre of excellence about two days ago and has resumed training and bowling and batting."

Hopes, 28, has played nine one-day internationals, taking four wickets at 67.25 and averaging 28.00 with the bat.

The medium-pacer was the leading bowler in the Australian domestic one-day competition this summer with 20 wickets at 21.05 and scored 303 runs at 33.67.

Hilditch said he hoped Queensland's Watson would be able to resume some light training later this week but had definitely been ruled out of Sunday's Super Eights game against England.

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