Ravichandran Ashwin to miss Ranji Trophy quarter final fixture against Karnataka

The Tamil Nadu cricket team were handed a huge blow as star Indian all-rounder Ravichandran Ashwin will not be available for the South Indian derby against Karnataka in the quarter-finals of the Ranji Trophy.

Tamil Nadu Cricket Association secretary K.S Viswanathan confirmed that Ashwin will miss the match while speaking to Sportstar live.

“Ashwin informed me today that he was suffering from a sports hernia. He also said he would not be available for the match,” said K.S Viswanathan.

Viswanathan went on to add that Murali Vijay, who had also confirmed his participation in the important fixture is doubtful for the match after hurting his shoulder in the recently concluded test match against England. “After the scan results are out, we will know about Vijay’s availability. He may have to take cortisone injections for pain relief,” Viswanathan said.

Both, Ashwin and Vijay played an integral role in the 4-0 hammering of England in the 5 match series which ended earlier today at their home ground in Chennai despite not performing well in the final Test. Ashwin managed only one wicket in the entire match, thus making it his lowest ever tally in test match played at home. Murali Vijay, on the other hand, did not open the innings after hurting his shoulder and thus came lower down the order and scored 29. India, however, thrashed England by an innings and 75 runs thanks to Ravindra Jadeja’s heroics with the ball in the last session.

Meanwhile, Karnataka, who dropped Robin Uthappa for the fixture, have included triple centurion Karun Nair, and Lokesh Rahul in the 16 man squad. They also included Manish Pandey who will be making a return to the Ranji Trophy after missing out their last match.

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The quarter-finals are set to begin on 23^rd December and the much-awaited derby is set to take place in Vishakhapatnam. In other fixtures, Hyderabad will be playing defending champions Mumbai in Raipur, Gujarat will be up against Odisha in Jaipur, and Haryana will be playing Jharkhand in Vadodara.