India's Sehwag, Munaf return for Sri Lanka one-dayers

CRICKET: MUMBAI, India, Feb 3 - Batsman Virender Sehwag and medium-pacer Munaf Patel return to the Indian team for the first two one-day internationals against Sri Lanka next week.

Opener Sehwag was dropped for the recent one-day series against West Indies due to loss of form.

"He was out of form and needed a break, now he's back," chairman of selectors Dilip Vengsarkar told a news conference on Saturday.

"We'd like him to bat in the middle order," Vengsarkar said of the 28-year-old.

India's brittle batting was cause for concern last year and the selectors decided to push premier batsman Sachin Tendulkar down the order.

The four matches are in Kolkata (Feb. 8), Rajkot (Feb. 11), Goa (Feb. 14) and Visakhapatnam (Feb. 17).

India's World Cup squad will be announced on Feb. 12.

The 23-year Munaf suffered an ankle injury on the tour of South Africa and struggled through the final test of the series which the visitors lost 2-1 in December.

India team: Rahul Dravid (captain), Sachin Tendulkar, Saurav Ganguly, Yuvraj Singh, Mahendra Dhoni (wk), Robin Uthappa, Ajit Agarkar, Zaheer Khan, Harbhajan Singh, Anil Kumble, Dinesh Karthik, Irfan Pathan, Munaf Patel, Virender Sehwag and Shanthakumaran Sreesanth.

(REUTERS)