Ashley Giles

Ashley Giles Biography

The man who was inspired by one of his cricket-loving teachers, Ashley Giles is a 44 years old former English cricketer who played for the cricket team of England.

He is a right-handed batsman and an excellent left-arm orthodox spinner.

Early Life

Ashley had his schooling from Kingfield First and Middle Schools where he was inspired by a sports-loving teacher which later brought him into this field of cricket.

Debut

His Test debut was against South Africa in Manchester in the year 1998 followed by his ODI debut against Australia in the year 1997.

His T20 debut was for Warwickshire v Northamptonshire at Birmingham in the year 2004.

Rise to Glory

Despite not procuring giant spin, Giles used his gigantic frame to procure good bounce off the surface.

It was not until 2000 that Giles was able to make an impression at the highest level. He successfully took 17 wickets on the tour of Pakistan to lead England to a historic series victory in Pakistan.

He shocked the world with his outstanding performance. He followed it up with match figures of 6/70 against Sri Lanka to help England complete a 2-1 series victory against the Asian giants.

He had to face a lot of criticisms regarding his lack of ability to spin, but Giles never lost hope. He continued to remain the mainstay of the English spin attack under Nasser Hussain.

On the tour of India in 2001, Giles frustrated the Indians with a defensive leg stump bowling. He scalped Sachin Tendulkar in the 90s in the third Test of the series at Bangalore.

It was the first occasion that Sachin had been stumped in Test cricket.

Giles did have token successes such as a rich haul of 18 wickets in the 3-Test tour of Sri Lanka. This historic series against Australia in 2005 gave that name and fame to Giles which he had earned by his sweat.

He ended up with only 10 wickets from the 5-Test series, but gave England the required breakthroughs at crucial times and chipped in with handy scores to frustrate Australia. He was given the very prestigious honorary MBE for his tremendous hard work, something the entire England squad received.

He also was fortunate enough to be awarded one of the cricketer of the year, 2005 by Wisden.

Low Points

Giles had to return to his home in the year 2006 in order to take care of his wife who had a brain tumor.

Moreover, he was neither selected for England for the 2007 World Cup.

He had severely injured his hip because of which his performance graph went lower by the passing day, and at last he had to retire.

Coach

Giles was one of the national selectors for England. Then he became the Head Coach of England's limited overs teams.

Retirement

Because of his hip injury, his performance level kept on degrading and finally, it forced him to retire on 9th August 2007.