England cricket team coach Andy Flower missed the second day's play of the first Ashes Test at the Gabba as he was in hospital being operated by an Indian-origin doctor for the removal of a melanoma, a type of skin cancer, from close to his right eye.

Dr. Shobhan Manoharan, said that Flower owed his life to the team's security officer Reg Dickason, who took him to her skin clinic in Brisbane this week.