Both Karnataka and Tamil Nadu have named their strongest possible squads ahead of their clash in the quarter-finals stage of the Ranji Trophy, which begins from December 23 at Visakhapatnam.

Tamil Nadu have called up Ravichandran Ashwin, who is the number one ranked bowler in Test cricket at the moment, and opening batsman Murali Vijay. The latter could still be a doubt after suffering a minor shoulder injury during the on-going fifth Test against England in Chennai.

Ashwin has not played a single Ranji Trophy match since November 2012. He is operating on a tight schedule as he is expected to attend the inauguration of a cricket academy in Dubai over the next two days.

On the other hand, Karnataka have re-called Karun Nair, KL Rahul and Manish Pandey to their squad. Nair became just the second Indian to register a Test triple century on Monday, while Rahul was dismissed on 199 after a fluent knock in the Chennai Test.

Manish Pandey, on the other hand, has been in India’s squad for the last two Tests but is yet to earn a Test cap.

Karnataka have surprisingly dropped veteran batsman Robin Uthappa from their squad. Uthappa has been a mainstay of the state team for a decade and played an important role as they won the Ranji Trophy in 2014 and 2015.

This game will be a recap of the 2014/15 Ranji Trophy final which was won by Karnataka by an innings and 217 runs. Interestingly, in that match – just like the India-England Test, Nair scored a triple century (328) while Rahul was dismissed as he was nearing a double century (188).