Ashley Giles has already proven that he is not afraid to give a young player his big break and Warwickshire’s director of cricket will do just that today.
Having watched his gamble in promoting a teenage Chris Woakes pay off in spectacular fashion last season, Giles will be hopeful for a similar impact from fellow seamer Andrew Miller today.
Injuries to Jimmy Anyon (shoulder) and Neil Carter (calf) mean that Giles has had to turn to 21-year-old Miller to face Hampshire in the LV County Championship Division One match at Edgbaston.
It will be Preston-born Miller’s championship debut having initially joined Warwickshire from Lancashire three years ago. The former England Under-19 international’s only previous first-class appearance was during the draw with Bangladesh A last summer.
However Giles, who will also have Boyd Rankin in his attack after he returned unscathed from Ireland’s World Cup qualifiers in South Africa, isn’t fearful of inexperience costing him, instead the Warwickshire chief insists that it is ‘exciting’.
“We are going with a pretty inexperienced bowling attack but I have plenty of faith in the bowlers and this will be a great opportunity for them,” Giles said. “It’s important that you continue building for the future and we can’t play with the same bowling attack every game.
“These guys have to be subjected to first-class cricket at some point and this is an opportunity, it’s an exciting time.”
Giles will also have Ant Botha available despite the fact that the spinner is still slightly struggling with an elbow injury while England wicketkeeper Tim Ambrose has also overcome a back strain to be fit to play.
Warwickshire will be aiming to get off to winning ways on home soil having started their return to the championship’s top flight with a high-scoring draw at Somerset.
Giles said: “I thought we did well in the County Championship fixture at Somerset, we had the worst of the wicket. To get 500 runs was great and the bowling wasn’t helped by us losing Neil Carter early on. To get ten points out of that County Championship match was fine with me. It’s great to be back at Edgbaston, the wicket looks good and hopefully we’ll be able to put on a good show in front of our supporters.”
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