Giles and his struggles against Australia

Ashley Giles's Test stats aren't the kind that will excite the average cricket fan, but over a career that has already spanned eight years, Giles has had his moments - in 2000-01 he starred in a famous series win in Pakistan, had one fine bowling performance in Sri Lanka soon after, and then played a stellar role in a losing cause on England's next tour to Sri Lanka, in 2003-04. He has mostly been seen as a defensive option and nothing more, but has outstanding stats against Brian Lara, arguably the best player of spin bowling in this generation and who even Muttiah Muralitharan has been unable to tame. Lara averages a meagre 15 runs per dismissal against Giles since 2001 and has been dismissed by him three times, all during the 2004 series, in which Giles reaped a bounty of wickets - 22 scalps in four Tests at an average of 23.13 are fabulous stats by any standards.

The problem for Giles, though, is that his recent numbers are anything but flattering, as the table below indicates. His best phase was undoubtedly in 2003-04, but since then the numbers have taken a severe beating, with just 27 wickets in his last 14 Tests at an average touching 57.

The other problem that has dogged Giles - and, to be fair, a lot of other bowlers - is a team called Australia. The ball that bowled Damien Martyn at Old Trafford last year was an absolute peach, but that was a rare golden moment in what has largely been an unfulfilling experience when the Aussies are on strike. In the ongoing series, Giles has unflattering figures of 3 for 262 from 82 overs, an average of 87.33 per wicket. And among all bowlers who have delivered at least 300 overs against the Australians, Giles's average makes him the third-most ineffective, after John Hearne, an allrounder who bowled legspin and played for England between 1911 and 1926, and Carl Hooper, whose greater skill was clearly with the bat. It wouldn't be wrong to state, then, that among specialist bowlers - even Duncan Fletcher would agree that despite Giles's considerable grit with bat in hand he is very much a specialist bowler - Giles's record against Australia is the poorest.

The other number that is interesting in the table above is Giles's economy rate: for a bowler whose main job is to bowl long spells and shackle an end up, his runs-per-over stat isn't impressive either. Giles goes for 3.55 per over, which is more expensive than even Stephen Harmison's economy rate.

Giles's stats against Lara are outstanding, but against most of the other top batsmen, he has struggled for penetration, at best being a run-saving option. The table below lists his head-to-head record against the world's leading batsmen since the 2001 Ashes, and Giles has come off second-best most of the times. And Shane Warne, who loses no opportunity to strike a psychological blow against his old rivals, has scored 118 runs from Giles for only two dismissals - that's a grand average of 59. That's one piece of information he might want to use the next time he faces up to Giles.