Giles hails successful op

Ashley Giles © Getty Images

England spinner Ashley Giles has hailed his second bout of hip surgery as a success and believes it will allow him to play on “for another five or six years”.

The 33-year-old returned home from the winter 2005 tour of Pakistan and did not feature in either the tour of India this year or the recent home series with Sri Lanka, but has set this winter’s Ashes tour as a realistic target.

The Warwickshire player told the Daily Telegraph: “We’ll find out more in a week’s time when I come off the crutches, but the early indications are that they’ve taken away the things that were causing the discomfort.

“I want to play cricket for a long time and I hope that I might be able to continue for another five or six years.

“The Ashes are my goal, partly because they’re a target to keep me going and partly because I believe that I can get myself fit and bowling again before then.”