Ashley Giles - from village green to Ashes hero

“I was nurtured as a seamer and bowled a hell of a lot of overs but then, at 15, had back trouble. I’d been playing in Guildford’s first team as a seamer so they said go back to the thirds and concentrate on batting,” Giles said. “In the nets, because it didn’t hurt my back, I bowled a bit of left-arm spin and one day in the thirds a game was going nowhere so the captain told me to bowl a few spinners. I took six wickets. In four weeks, I took three five-fors and a six-for. Then I played in the seconds as a spinner and, when I was fit again, I got back in the firsts and would open the bowling then, after a while, the captain would say ‘bowl spin’.”