England team fully behind Giles

Ashley Giles has the full support of the whole England team

Marcus Trescothick is backing spin bowler Ashley Giles to bounce back from his tough week and show his worth to England’s line-up in this week’s second Ashes Test at Edgbaston.

Left-arm spinner Giles has been the focus of a large part of the criticism directed at England in the week following their 239-run opening-Test defeat at Lord’s.

Giles has responded by angrily, saying: “I suspect that people are after me again. I think I deserve more patience and respect.”

Trescothick, one of Giles’ closest allies within the England dressing room, was just as eager to spring to his defence and is backing him to prove his critics wrong at Edgbaston.

Batsman Marcus Trescothick expects Giles to bounce back strongly to the criticism

“It’s been a tough week for Ashley, but he’ll be fine,” said Trescothick.

“He’s been through different things like this through his career, as we all have, and it’s up to him to bounce back strongly this week. He’s been a good performer for us and last year he got nine wickets on this ground.

“With this being his home ground as well, he’ll get a lot of support from the crowd, but most of all he’ll get a lot of support from us and the team and management involved in the game.

“We’ve been apart all week so we’ve not had much chance of being in contact, but we’ll talk to him over the next couple of days, settle him down and make sure his mind is right and ready for Thursday morning.”

Giles’ chances of featuring in England’s line-up could depend on the state of the Edgbaston wicket, which head groundsman Steve Rouse believes is four days behind schedule in its preparation following the tornado which devastated areas of Birmingham last week.

Trescothick believes England can take heart from his opening partnership with Andrew Strauss

England have already called up Durham all-rounder Paul Collingwood to give them extra options within the squad, having inspected the damp wicket on Monday, and Giles’ place could be under threat if it fails to dry out sufficiently.

Disappointed as England were by their Lord’s display, however, they will take encouragement from the 80-run opening stand between Trescothick and Andrew Strauss in the second innings, which they believe can form a catalyst for an improved batting display throughout the side at Edgbaston.

“The team took encouragement from our partnership,” conceded Trescothick.

“It showed that if you can graft through some hard times, you can get runs against them. In general they bowled pretty well as a team and we had to really knuckle down and work really hard in that innings.

“I got 44 and it felt like I’d batted for a long time. You can score runs against them, you just have to work hard.”