ANDREW Hodd has been earmarked as a potential opening batsman for the first few games of the LV= County Championship this summer should Yorkshire's top order be hit by early-season international calls.

Regular openers Adam Lyth and Alex Lees spent the early part of 2015 in South Africa with England Lions and both have been mentioned as candidates for England's Test tour of the West Indies in April and May.

Yorkshire could have a whole host of players involved in that trip and they have prepared for every eventuality during their pre-season training programme at Headingley.

Experienced wicketkeeper Hodd is a more than capable batsman although he has limited experience of opening the batting in first-class cricket, doing that job only once in a university fixture during his days at Sussex.

However, batting in the middle order he will have regularly come across the second new ball during an innings.

A more obvious name in the frame is that of the former England under-19s opener Jonny Tattersall and director of professional cricket Martyn Moxon has been working closely with both players.

Yorkshire coach Jason Gillespie said: "We have identified a couple of lads so that if we do lose some players to that Caribbean tour, we may need someone to step up at the top of the order.

"A couple of lads – Jonny Tattersall and Hoddy – have been working really hard specifically with Martyn on their top-order batting. If that situation comes up, we've prepared.

"Hoddy looks in great touch. We're huge fans of his. We think he's a hell of a player. The fact that he's one of the best keepers in the country helps us as well.

"We really think that if we needed someone in that top order, he could potentially fulfil a role if we needed him.

"We'll just have to wait and see how many guys we will lose to that West Indies tour. We're pretty much guaranteed to lose three I would have thought – Gary Ballance, Joe Root and Liam Plunkett.

"I've read media reports that Jonathan Trott may be taken as a spare opener and things like that. There's a bit of an unknown for us so we just have to prepare in case we do lose more."

England's Caribbean tour runs from April 6 to May 5 and Yorkshire play three Championship fixtures in that time against Worcestershire, Nottinghamshire and Warwickshire.