Giles says he always expected his recovery to take 12 weeks

And the spinner admitted his recovery was hampered by trying to rush back from hip surgery to make the trip.

"There's still a chance I could make it for the one-dayers, but it's going to be incredibly tight," he said.

"As you try to drive to get on the plane you actually send it backwards. We were pushing a touch too early."

It was always very tight for getting on the plane to India Ashley Giles

Giles was pencilled in for the three-Test tour, but replaced at the last minute by Ian Blackwell.

He told the Warwickshire website that surgeons had not expected him to be fit until the second Test of the series.

"There was probably a bit more going on in [the hip] when they did the operation than they'd originally thought," he continued.

"But they did say three months minimum all the way along.

"It was always very tight for getting on the plane to India. Everything would have had to go ahead of schedule and swimmingly."

However, Giles is confident he will be fit in time for the visit of Sri Lanka in May, adding: "I'd hope that whatever happened about India, I'd be fit to start the domestic season."

In the absence of Giles, who has taken 140 wickets in his 52 Tests as England's first-choice spinner for the last five years, the tourists are seriously short of experience in India.

Thirty-six-year-old Shaun Udal made his debut in Pakistan but took just three wickets in as many Tests.