Bengal pacer Ashok Dinda was once again kept out of the squad for their upcoming Ranji Trophy fixture against Gujarat in Kolkata from January 3 as the selectors named a 16-member squad on Monday.

The pace spearhead, who has represented India in 13 One-day Internationals and nine Twenty20 Internationals, was dropped from the Bengal squad on the eve of their match against Andhra after he reportedly abused bowling coach Ranadeb Bose after a pre-match practice session and refused to apologise.

“Based on team management’s views, the selectors did not consider Dinda for inclusion in the team at this stage,” CAB joint secretary Avishek Dalmiya said.

Bengal bowling attack missed Dinda as they had to settle for three points on basis of their first innings lead. The state selectors also roped in uncapped left handed batsman Kazi Junaid Safi in place of struggling Sudip Chatterjee. Bengal have slipped to seventh place with nine points from two matches in the Elite Cross Pool.

Bengal Squad: Abhimanyu Easwaran (c), Abhishek Raman, Manoj Tiwary, Anustup Majumder, Shreevats Goswami, Arnab Nandi, Ritwik Roy Chowdhury, Ishan Porel, Shahbaz Ahmed, Sudip Gharami, Akash Deep, Mukesh Kumar, Koushik Ghosh, B Amit, Ayan Bhattacharya, Kazi Junaid Saifi.