Skipper 'Mo' all set to go

Australia A captain Moises Henriques is determined to finish the ‘A’ tour on a high, after admitting minor injury troubles had hampered his output in Brisbane and Darwin.

Henriques mostly watched on as fellow allrounders Mitch Marsh, James Faulkner and Ben Cutting put strong performances on the board that preceded their selection in the one-day squad for the tour of Zimbabwe.

While he eventually got in on the act with an underappreciated 90 on the same day as Phil Hughes’ epic unbeaten double-century, the New South Welshman admits the depth of talented allrounders makes it a challenge to push for higher honours.

“It’s a fantastic challenge with Shane Watson leading the way and then you’ve got guys like James and Mitch who are fantastic cricketers,” Henriques said.

“There’s good depth and (competition) for the allrounders and so there should be.

“It’s a position that everyone as a kid wanted to play … so it’s fantastic for Australian cricket.”

With Faulkner’s call-up to the ODI squad, Henriques has been handed the responsibility of captaining the ‘A’ side for the remaining two matches.

Despite having led a number of teams in the past, including NSW, Sydney Sixers and Australia’s under-19 World Cup side in 2006, it’s a role the 27-year-old doesn’t take for granted.

“I got to captain the under-19s and that was the proudest moment of my life at the point,” he said.

“To continue on and now do it for Australia A… it’s a little bragging right I can take home and tell the grandchildren.”

Yesterday middle-order batsman Callum Ferguson admitted it takes a bit of time to adjust to the red ball after two weeks of limited-overs cricket, but Henriques believes it won’t be an issue come match day.

“A lot of the guys played four-day matches before the one-day series only two or three weeks ago,” the skipper told media after training.

“Most of the guys have been playing first-class cricket for a long time now and (changing between formats) was expected of you before the (new-look) one-day tournament last year… so all the guys are used to these conditions.”

The home side accounted for South Africa A quite comfortably in their two clashes in the one-day series, but Henriques isn’t anticipating a walk in the park for his side in the first-class matches.

“I think they’ll come hard, they’ve got a couple of big quicks that can bowl quite lively,” he added.

“If we can just wear them down and keep them out in the field and make the most of the new ball then I’m sure we can get the win over them.”

Play is scheduled to commence at 9:30am AEST Thursday with live streaming right here on cricket.com.au.

Possible XI: Hughes, Wade, Forrest, Ferguson, Cooper, Henriques (c), Nevill (wk), O'Keefe, Sandhu, Behrendorff, Sayers.