South Indian rivals Karnataka and Tamil Nadu will face off at Visakhapatnam in the quarter-finals of the Ranji Trophy, India’s most prestigious first-class competition.

The match is a repeat of the 2015 final which was won by Karnataka as they lifted their eighth Ranji Trophy title.

KL Rahul, Karun Nair, Manish Pandey from Karnataka and Murali Vijay, Ravichandran Ashwin from Tamil Nadu are currently in the Indian Test squad facing England in the fifth Test and are all a doubt for the clash.

The quarter-finals have been pushed forward by a day and will now start on December 23.

With the India-England series ending on December 20, there is enough time for the five players to make it for the match but the BCCI might want them rested with the Indian team are in the middle of a long home season.

The other quarter-final matches see Group A winners Mumbai facing Group C winners Hyderabad at Raipur, Group B winners Jharkhand playing Haryana in Baroda, and Odisha and Gujarat facing off against each other at Jaipur.

The dates for the semi-finals and final have also been advanced, with the final four stage set to begin on January 1, 2017 while the final is now scheduled for January 10 at the Holkar Stadium, Indore.