KOLKATA, India (CMC):

Former India captain Sourav Ganguly is anxious to return to One-day International (ODI) cricket against the West Indies later his month.

The 34-year-old left-hander, who recently returned to Test cricket after a lengthy absence, has been included in India's squad to face West Indies in a pre-World Cup four-match ODI series and he believes he will need some time to get his touch back in the abbreviated game.

"I need time to settle down. I am back after 13-14 months. My record for India in the last 11 years (in ODIs) has been good and I hope to carry on from that," Ganguly told reporters.

Ganguly has not played ODI cricket since September 2005 and he wants to grab the opportunity to command his place in the side.

"I will have to do well and score runs," said Ganguly, who was also included in a provisional 30-member World Cup squad.

He declined to comment on his prospects of making it to the final squad for the global showpiece in the Caribbean.

"Let's first finish this series. Then there's another series (against Sri Lanka). There are still eight games to go before the World Cup. We should take one series at a time."

Out-of-form Virender Sehwag and Irfan Pathan have been dropped from the Indian one-day squad for the first two matches of the four-match home ODI series against West Indies.

The team for the first two ODIs has four openers - Sachin Tendulkar, Sourav Ganguly, Gautam Gambhir and Robin Uthappa. India will face West Indies on January 21, 24, 27 and 31.

ODI Squad to face Windies - Rahul Dravid (captain), Sachin Tendulkar (vice-captain), Robin Uthappa, Sourav Ganguly, Mahendra Singh Dhoni (wk), Dinesh Karthik, Suresh Raina, Gautam Gambhir, Zaheer Khan, Sreesanth, Ajit Agarkar, Joginder Sharma, Ramesh Powar, Harbhajan Singh, Rudra Pratap Singh.