Ishant Sharma joins Delhi's Ranji nets, Vijay Dahiya takes over as coach

New Delhi: India's pace bowling spearhead Ishant Sharma on Tuesday joined the Delhi Ranji team ahead of their second group league encounter against Vidarbha while Vijay Dahiya officially took charge as chief coach replacing Ajay Jadeja.

"Yes, I have been officially appointed the coach and I took charge of the net session at the Feroz Shah Kotla today. Ishant also joined the net session and bowled full tilt in three separate spells at the nets. He also batted and told me that he has been training all this while to keep himself match-fit," Dahiya told PTI after the training session.

It will be in some unusual circumstances that Dahiya will take over from Jadeja as the latter resigned even before joining the team for the opening match against Rajasthan in Jaipur.

Ask him about whether the scenario will be a tough one for him, Dahiya, who shares a fantastic working equation with skipper Gautam Gambhir said, "I don't think any external matter would have affected the team. For me, the positive is the fight back that they carried out after being all-out for 138 on the first day. What I understood today, the dressing room atmosphere is fantastic. The new boys don't have an idea nor did they need to know anything apart from their game."

For Dahiya, the endeavour would be to build a team for the future. "This is a new team that we are trying to build and that is the sole focus. The presence of Ishant for this match is a massive boost. It's always been a culture in Delhi that the stars, whenever they have got time from international commitments, have played for state team. Ishant's presence in the ground as well as in the dressing room will be a learning experience for the youngsters," Dahiya concluded.