Giles targets Ashes after hip surgery

England spinner is determined to reclaim his place in time to face the Aussies later this year.

England spinner Ashley Giles has set his sights on the Ashes later in 2006 after undergoing a second bout of hip surgery.

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The 33-year-old was forced to return home from the winter 2005 tour of Pakistan and did not feature in either the tour of India in 2006 or the recent home series with Sri Lanka.

But now he is determined to reclaim his place in time to face the Australians later this year.

"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," Giles told the Daily Telegraph.

"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."