Ranji Trophy quarter-final begins today

Karnataka will take on Tamil Nadu at Visakhapatnam, Gujarat will lock horns with Odisha at Jaipur, Jharkhand will meet a gutsy Haryana side at Vadodara, and Mumbai will face Hyderabad at Raipur in the last-eight stage of Ranji Trophy quarter-finals at different venues.

At Visakhapatnam, fresh from their exploits in the final Test versus England, India's new batting stars Karun Nair and KL Rahul will be aiming to send an inexperienced Tamil Nadu attack on a leatherhunt. Tamil Nadu are without the world's leading off-spinner R Ashwin. The absence of Ashwin and Murali Vijay against a full Karnataka side will hurt Tamil Nadu. 

Ashwin is taking rest as he is



suffering from sports hernia after a stellar all-round performance through the year earned him ICC's 'Cricketer of the Year' award. Vijay is out with a shoulder injury sustained while fielding during Chennai Test.With the distinction of being India's second triple centurion, Karun's presence can be intimidating for a pace attack with a combined experience of 35 first-class matches. Also, bowling with a new ball against Rahul, who has just scored 199 in a Test match will not be the easiest of assignments. 

It's not only about Nair and Rahul, who are India internationals but Karnataka has been a formidable domestic unit in recent years winning Ranji Trophy twice.