Growing up, all Moises Henriques wanted was a baggy blue cap.
Not a baggy green cap, mind you – a baggy blue.
“As a kid, I put first-class cricket up on this big pedestal,” Henriques told AAP.
Then, after debuting for NSW and earning that prized cap as a 19-year-old, Henriques had to alter his career goals drastically.
“After that, I always said to myself ‘if I could just get that baggy green, that one Test, my life would be complete’,” he adds.
“It would be a dream come true.
“But then you get one, and then you want two.
“You get two and you want 10. You just want more and more.”
Henriques broke into the Test team on Australia’s failed tour of India earlier this year, playing in three games.
Two half-centuries including an unbeaten 81 on debut foreshadowed a bright Test career, but he fell back to earth with a thud in the following games as Australia lost the series 4-0.
But that taste wasn’t enough for Henriques, who has been named captain of Australia A in their tour match with England to be played from Wednesday.
Now the 26-year-old is redoubling his efforts and is eyeing the summer Ashes series as a chance to win back a spot in Michael Clarke’s line-up.
A hamstring injury to Shane Watson could open the door for Henriques, should selectors be keen on replacing the former vice-captain with an allrounder.
“I’ll be fighting very hard this season to try and get back into the side,” he said, before the decisive game seven in Bangalore when Watson was injured.
The key, as always, will be performing for NSW and giving selectors no option but to give him another crack.
But gone is his God-like regard of Test players, those walls broken down quickly from his time in the national set-up.
“When you get there and play against them, and you realise they’re human as well, that’s the biggest thing,” he said.
“Realising and believing that you can do well. And luckily I did OK on my debut.
“But cricket’s a funny game – it turns around.
“Game two and three, I wasn’t quite as successful in.
“It certainly gives me confidence of knowing I can do well at that level.
“But at the same time, knowing that you have to work really hard to keep doing well.
“You can’t just do it once or twice and think you’ve done your job.
“Especially for Australia, you’ve just got to keep doing it as much as you can.
“The current Test captain, Michael Clarke, he personifies that in the way that he plays his cricket.
“He consistently does very well for Australia in Test and one-day cricket.
“That’s the standard that’s expected from cricketers when you play in Australian colours.”
