Australia A captain Moises Henriques says he has no plans to stymie England’s Ashes preparations, with his main goal to push the cases of Australia’s Test hopefuls.
Henriques says there are several positions up for grabs in Michael Clarke’s team for the Gabba Test, starting November 21, and he intends to give his squad the best chance possible of securing them.
Alongside the allrounder are vice-captain Glenn Maxwell, batsmen Usman Khawaja, Alex Doolan, Shaun Marsh and Michael Klinger and bowling allrounder Ben Cutting, all pushing for spots.
They will play England at Bellerive Oval in a four-day match starting November 6.
And while England will be using the match purely to tune up their squad ahead of the five-Test series, Henriques said he would play fair.
He takes the responsibility seriously and ruled out instructing his team to bat out the contest to deny England’s batsman valuable time in the middle to acclimatise to Australian conditions.
“I think they’re going to want to bowl on the wickets as well,” Henriques told AAP.
“I think they’ll want to get some workloads into all of their bowlers.
“The best games of cricket are always evenly matched – each team spending a similar amount of time in the field.
“You want to be playing games when you’re fighting for a result on that last day (with) that competitive edge.
“That’s something we’ll be pushing for, hopefully trying to get a result on that last day and bringing the competitive juices out.”
Henriques, who was told of his appointment as captain by selector Andy Bichel early on Australia’s one-day tour of India, said he was humbled by the honour and outlined his simple goals for leading the talent-laden squad.
For the one-off clash the 26-year-old is less concerned with tactics and strategy and more interested in giving everyone the best chance to showcase their talents.
“There’s lots of spots up for grabs for the upcoming Test tour with a couple of injuries to the bowlers as well,” he said.
“I’m sure Ben Cutting and Trent Copeland will want to be making their mark as well.
“From a leadership point of view I’ll be trying to give as much onus to the individual to come with their own plans and what they want to get out of the game.
“What I can do is just try and support them as much as I can.
“If a bowler wants his fields, I’ll give him his fields.
“That’s the main thing that I’m there to try and help.
“I want every individual to achieve their goal as much as I’m trying to achieve mine as well.”
