Henriques takes personal leave from Sixers

Sydney Sixers captain Moises Henriques will be absent from the club's playing squad until further notice after it was today announced he is taking personal leave from the KFC Big Bash League.

Henriques, who played all 10 matches for the Sixers last summer and the opening two of BBL|07, missed Thursday night's clash with the Strikers, which left the Sydney side without a win from their opening three fixtures.

The Sixers issued a brief statement today: "The Sydney Sixers advise that Moises Henriques will be taking some personal leave from the BBL. He will return when he feels ready to continue in the tournament. Out of respect for Moises' privacy the Club will not make any further comment."

The 30-year-old, who has played 26 times for Australia across the three formats, had been expected to play a key role in the Sixers' BBL|07 campaign after a strong finish to the tournament last summer, in which he produced a player-of-the-match display in the Super Over semi-final win against the Brisbane Heat.

The allrounder had also produced a career-best 62no for Australia in the final T20I against India to level the series, though he had a lean run with the bat to start the current JLT Sheffield Shield campaign, scoring 106 runs at 15.14 while collecting two wickets.

Henriques was replaced in the Sixers side on Thursday by Jordan Silk, who himself withdrew from the 2015 domestic one-day tournament with Tasmania, citing personal reasons at the time.

Fellow Sixers batsman Nic Maddinson is another high-profile player to have recently voluntarily spent some time on the sidelines, with the left-hander taking some time away from the game last summer following his axing from the Test side.

"I was a bit mentally drained from that Test experience," he told News Corp in October. "Obviously I was still trying to find a game plan and find my game and I think just the back-to-back games in Big Bash and the travel and how fast-paced it is, I didn't really have the opportunity to sit back and really think about it or do anything about changing my game in that time.

"I was just on that run of outs and couldn't really get away from it.

"Cricket is such a mental game at a professional level and you do become drained and you do need a break."