Ashley Giles
|
|
Template:Infobox Cricketer Ashley Fraser Giles (born in Chertsey, Surrey, on 19 March, 1973) is an English cricketer who plays Test cricket for the England cricket team and county cricket for Warwickshire County Cricket Club.
Giles began as a fast bowler, but is now a left-arm orthodox spinner (turning the ball away from right-handed batsmen, like a leg spinner). His ability to get the ball to turn has been criticised, but he is accurate and shows good variation. Since 2000/1, he has been England's first-choice slow bowler. He is also a useful tail-end batsman: he has scored three first-class centuries, but his Test average is around 20 and he has scored only three Test fifties.
Until 2004, his most successful bowling has been in Pakistan and Sri Lanka. In July 2004, he took 9-210 in the first Test at Lord's (including his 100th Test wicket, Brian Lara) and 9-122 in the second Test at Edgbaston, and was instrumental in England beating West Indies twice. In that series he gained the nickname "King Of Spain", after a set of mugs ordered for his testimonial year had been erroneously printed with that slogan, instead of "King Of Spin". He was, until that successful run of form, also much derided by commentators: the BBC's Test Match Special commentator Henry Blofeld famously labelled him a "Wheelie Bin", much to Giles's disgust.
In 2005, he was named as one of five cricketers of the year by Wisden Cricketer's Almanack.