Giles expects Tendulkar to seek revenge

Ashley Giles is not the sort of person who is afraid to stick his head above the parapet. When a youngster on the books of his native Surrey, he decided to change from being a left-arm seamer to become a left-arm spinner. Surrey did not want him to make the change. He was adamant, and moved to Warwickshire.

For a young lad trying to make his way in the game, such a move showed courage and character. He has had one or two such tests of his mettle along the way. As a rookie international cricketer, he bowled an early spell of 2-0-19-0 in front of a baying crowd in Sydney in a one-day international.

As Australia closed in on England's total, Giles was brought back at the death. It could conceivably have marked the end of his international career, but he held his nerve, bowled the dangerous Greg Blewett who was on a one-man charge to victory, and England won by a mere seven runs.

Giles enjoyed a winter on the sub-continent in 2000-2001, where he established himself as the country's premier spinner in Test cricket as well as one-day internationals, and he was set for a successful summer when injury struck him down. A bulky man, he was let down by his Achilles and his international appearances were limited to one, at Edgbaston against Australia where he was patently unfit.

After surgery, he was still by no means match-fit when he joined the England party in India before Christmas. However, he bowled himself back to fitness by taking five for 67 from 43.3 overs in the first innings at Ahmedabad. Having proved his fitness, he then faced another mental battle in Bangalore.

Nasser Hussain, his captain, asked him to bowl left-arm over the wicket into the bowlers' footmarks, first to contain and then to dismiss Sachin Tendulkar. It was a tactic that attracted much criticism, but it worked. Doubters - and there were plenty - need only look in the book, as the saying goes. "Tendulkar, stumped Foster, bowled Giles." It was the first time Tendulkar had ever been dismissed in such a fashion in Test cricket.

Mind you, one-day internationals will call for a different approach. For one thing, such a line of delivery would bring a host of the wide calls that might have occurred in Bangalore. For another, Giles rather thinks that Tendulkar might be gunning for him.

"The one-day series will be a totally different thing to the Test series and I'll have to be prepared for him coming at me because I think he will," conceded Giles.

"After that series when I bowled over the wicket a lot to him, I think he may just have a bit of a dart at me and if it goes my way, it goes my way, and if it doesn't then so be it.

"I'm not daunted by the prospect, I see it as a fantastic challenge for me and it's one I'm really looking forward to. I know the sort of spinners he's played against and how well he's played them.

"I would never say I'm one of the best spinners in the world, but to get him like that gives me such a nice feeling. His wicket was one that I wanted and it was a wicket I will always cherish - I'll do well to get a better wicket than that."

Furthermore, Giles is looking forward to tomorrow as an occasion, with up to 100,000 people in the ground, not many of them hoping to see him succeed.

"Playing at Eden Gardens should be fantastic," he admitted. "You may never play in front of 100,000 people again and it's an experience you should enjoy.

"It's something I'm sure I'll remember for the rest of my life so I'm really looking forward to it - it's something I'm going to savour."

Recalling the time he bowled at the death against the Australians, he said, "I played at the Sydney Cricket Ground in front of 38,000 a few years ago which was fantastic, but this will be totally different and I can't even imagine what 100,000 people in a cricket ground will look like!"

He is about to find out.