Higuain appeared in an Argentina shirt most recently during last June's friendly against Brazil in Australia.
He missed his country's final four World Cup qualifiers but with only Lionel Messi scoring regularly for the national side, firepower up front is needed and Higuain has scored 20 times for Juventus this season.
The Argentina coach left out Mauro Icardi and Paulo Dybala but included Roma's Diego Perotti and Manchester City's Sergio Aguero. Sampaoli is expected to add a few more home-based players in the coming days.
Argentina will play Italy at the Etihad stadium in Manchester on March 23 and then face Spain in Madrid four days later as part of their World Cup preparations.
"The certainties that I have about the squad list are around 80 percent," Sampaoli said of the group that will go to Russia. "Defining the other 20 percent is more complicated."
Argentina kick off their World Cup campaign on June 16 against Iceland and then face Croatia and Nigeria.
The South Americans won the tournament in 1978 and 1986 and were beaten finalists four years ago against Germany.
(Reporting by Andrew Downie; Editing by Mark Heinrich)
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