Irfan replaces injured Vinay Kumar

Irfan Pathan, the India allrounder, will join the squad for the Sri Lanka tour after fast bowler Vinay Kumar was ruled out with a hamstring injury. Vinay will be sidelined for three weeks, and will miss the short limited-overs series that starts on July 21.

"Obviously, when I was overlooked initially, I was thinking about what are the areas I needed to work upon and was focussing on my training at the National Cricket Academy," Irfan told PTI.

"I am pretty satisfied with the hours that I have put in at the nets and in the indoor sessions there. After this call-up, the focus will shift to the Lankan series."

Irfan made a comeback to the national squad after almost three years when he was included during West Indies' tour of India in December 2011. Since then, he has played in India's last two ODI series - the Asia Cup in March, where he was preferred over Ravindra Jadeja and the CB series in Australia. He took five wickets, including a four-wicket haul against Sri Lanka, in the three matches during the Asia Cup at an average of 32 and got six wickets in the four he played in Australia. However, neither Irfan nor Jadeja were included in the original squad for the Sri Lanka series, with the emphasis of selections being on specialists rather than allrounders.

"I played 8 ODIs after my comeback and have got 13 wickets. I have scored around 100 runs in the five innings that I have batted. For someone like me, the more I play international matches, the better I will get," he said.

India will play five ODIs and one Twenty20 during the tour which starts with an ODI in Hambantota.