The hard-hitting batsman was dropped for a recent home series against the West Indies following his poor performance on the South African tour, with chief selector Dilip Vengsarkar advising him to "sort out his batting."

Sehwag has so far scored 4,756 runs in 163 one-day internationals with seven centuries.

"He needed a break because he was not in good form. He has gone back and worked on his batting. We'd like him to bat in the middle-order and I hope he does well," Vengsarkar told reporters here.

Sehwag returned to domestic cricket after the South African tour, scoring a century for Delhi in the only first-class match available to him.

The four-match series against Sri Lanka is India's last before the World Cup tournament starts in the Caribbean in March.

Fast bowler Munaf Patel was also named in the 15-man squad for the first two one-dayers after missing the four-match series against the West Indies due to an ankle injury.

"He has been declared fit to play by team physio John Gloster in his report," said Indian cricket board secretary Niranjan Shah.

Batsmen Gautam Gambhir and Suresh Raina, and off-spinner Ramesh Powar failed to find a place in the squad after playing against the West Indies.

The series against Sri Lanka begins in Kolkata on February 8, with the remaining games in Rajkot (February 11), Goa (February 14) and Visakhapatnam (February 17).

The World Cup squad will be named on February 12.

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