{"id":40154,"date":"2021-03-01T22:23:20","date_gmt":"2021-03-01T23:23:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=40154"},"modified":"2021-03-02T05:59:21","modified_gmt":"2021-03-02T05:59:21","slug":"ex-test-skipper-backs-henriques-fairytale-return","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=40154","title":{"rendered":"Ex-Test skipper backs Henriques&#039; fairytale return"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Former Test skipper Mark Taylor has backed veteran Moises Henriques to make a fairytale return to the national side for the Ashes ahead of a make-or-break few months for Test hopefuls.<\/p>\n<p>Henriques and the recently-axed Travis Head have both staked their claim to make Test comebacks with strong returns at the Shield level in recent weeks.<\/p>\n<p>However, Taylor backed the New South Wales all-rounder Henriques over Head to claim a middle-order spot in Australia&#x27;s Ashes XI.<\/p>\n<p>&quot;I think it&#x27;s far too early at this stage to tell who&#x27;s going to fill those spots,&quot; Taylor told <em>Wide World of Sports.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><img data-id=\"8185bfaf-5fdb-44b8-94a9-aaab8c959c9f\" src=\"https:\/\/prod.static9.net.au\/fs\/8185bfaf-5fdb-44b8-94a9-aaab8c959c9f\" alt=\"\" data-width=\"2206\" data-height=\"1241\" \/><\/p>\n<p>&quot;He&#x27;s getting towards the end of his career, but if I had to pick a team tomorrow, I&#x27;d have Moises Henriques at five.&quot;<\/p>\n<p>With the spots of David Warner, Will Pucovski, Steve Smith, and Marnus Labuschagne all but locked into the top order, it&#x27;s looking increasingly <a href=\"https:\/\/wwos.nine.com.au\/cricket\/sheffield-shield-scores-news-results-travis-head-moises-henriques-cameron-green\/929c41ff-0f83-4aa3-9e1f-8415e25b1f57\" target=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" title=\"like a battle for two places for anyone on the outside\">like a battle for two places for anyone on the outside<\/a> &#8211; but Taylor believes Cameron Green will keep his spot as well.<\/p>\n<p>&quot;There&#x27;s no doubt Cameron Green is the incumbent now in that six spot and rightfully so, but I&#x27;d think Australia will hope that he continues to develop,&quot; he said.<\/p>\n<p>&quot;He&#x27;s pencilled in now, he&#x27;s almost inked in for the start of the Ashes at number six. All he can do now is continue to prove and that big score he made was obviously terrific.&quot;<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/cricketcomau\/status\/1365167632773603328\" rel=\"nofollow\" class=\"embed-social embed-twitter\" data-show-caption=\"false\" data-conversation=\"none\">https:\/\/twitter.com\/cricketcomau\/status\/1365167632773603328<\/a><\/p>\n<p>The odd man out right now could well be Travis Head, despite his recent statement-making double century for South Australia.<\/p>\n<p>&quot;Putting a big score on the board in the first innings in particular I think is a really good thing for him &#8211; because looking back at some of his recent successes, a lot of them have been rearguard actions in the second innings when his states been struggling,&quot; Taylor said.<\/p>\n<p>&quot;A big double hundred in the first innings certainly gets a big tick.&quot;<\/p>\n<p>The former Australian captain also said that despite Head being dropped for the end of the recent series against India, it was clear he would be a fixture for years to come if runs continued at state level.<\/p>\n<p>&quot;I don&#x27;t think he&#x27;s even been out of favour. He&#x27;s young, he&#x27;s up and coming and he&#x27;s a potential leader,&quot; Taylor said.<\/p>\n<p>&quot;I want to see him continue to make runs, particularly against quality attacks, and I think that&#x27;s going to be the question that people want answered about Travis Head.<\/p>\n<p>&quot;He&#x27;s struggled against the better attacks when he&#x27;s been given the opportunity.&quot;<\/p>\n<p><strong>CURRENT SHEFFIELD SHIELD RUN LEADERS<\/strong><\/p>\n<ol>\n<li>Travis Head &#8211; 693 in 10 innings (77)<\/li>\n<li>Shaun Marsh &#8211; 554 in 8 innings (79.14)<\/li>\n<li>Moises Henriques &#8211; 549 in 9 innings (68.62)<\/li>\n<li>Cameron Green &#8211; 531 in 8 innings (88.50)<\/li>\n<li>Will Pucovski &#8211; 495 in 3 innings (247.50)<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>A return to the big time for Henriques would be an incredible end to his career, after receiving a debut in 2013 and playing just three Tests. He was recalled for one match in 2016 and has never represented Australia on home soil.<\/p>\n<p>&quot;I&#x27;ve been a big supporter of Moises throughout his career, and I&#x27;ll be honest with you, I think the selectors did the wrong thing by him in 2013 when he went to India, did OK, played well in the first Test of that ill-fated tour, and then they didn&#x27;t take him to England which I thought was a real mistake,&quot; Taylor said.<\/p>\n<p>&quot;I thought that was the chance for him, I think he was ready to go. Then they&#x27;ve only given him limited opportunities between then and now.&quot;<\/p>\n<p>Now 34 and with a world of first-class cricket experience under his belt, Henriques may well be one that got away for Australia when people look back at his career.<\/p>\n<p><img data-id=\"7cba4ccb-e676-4cc1-8599-e3ccbd215d27\" src=\"https:\/\/prod.static9.net.au\/fs\/7cba4ccb-e676-4cc1-8599-e3ccbd215d27\" alt=\"\" data-width=\"3000\" data-height=\"1999\" \/><\/p>\n<p>&quot;He&#x27;s been one of those guys that&#x27;s missed the opportunities that have been afforded to people like the Travis Heads and the Mitch Marshes,&quot; Taylor said.<\/p>\n<p>&quot;If they&#x27;d spent the time with Moises Henriques, they potentially would have had a guy they could lock in at number five or six.<\/p>\n<p>&quot;He&#x27;s got as good a cricket brain as there is of the guys who aren&#x27;t in the Australian side at the moment, he&#x27;s got great match awareness and obviously been a leader for NSW and the Sixers &#8230; he&#x27;s also a damn good catcher, and I&#x27;ve always said that&#x27;s a real bonus.&quot;<\/p>\n<p>There may be one extra chance for any of that trio, or other bolters, to make an impression &#8211; the final of the Test Championship in June.<\/p>\n<p>But Australia&#x27;s Test team will be out of action for six months unless England do them a favour and beat India in the final match of that series. A win for England would push the Aussies into the final against New Zealand.<\/p>\n<p><img data-video-id=\"6235384606001\" src=\"https:\/\/vms-network-images-prod.s3-ap-southeast-2.amazonaws.com\/2021\/02\/345031\/pickerImage.jpg\" alt=\"India defeat England inside two days\" data-vms-id=\"ref:cklld10el000j0htckldt9mg6\" \/><\/p>\n<p>&quot;Cameron Green deserves to stay at six &#8211; but if Australia don&#x27;t make that final of the Test championship it&#x27;ll be down to that one Test against Afghanistan and early Shield form might become vital again,&quot; Taylor said.<\/p>\n<p>The 56-year-old said it was unfortunate to have to rely on England, but to not count them out just yet.<\/p>\n<p>&quot;I think there&#x27;s some chance because they played well in the first Test &#8211; but I hope they don&#x27;t get the same sort of pitch as the last two,&quot; he said.<\/p>\n<p>&quot;The MCG pitch once received a poor Test rating. If that&#x27;s poor, I don&#x27;t know what that last one would be.&quot;<\/p>\n<p>The fourth Test between England and India begins on Thursday.<\/p>\n<p><em><strong>For a daily dose of the best of the breaking news and exclusive content from Wide World of Sports, subscribe to our newsletter by<\/strong><\/em> <a href=\"https:\/\/login.nine.com.au\/edm?client_id=wwos&amp;redirect_uri=https:\/\/wwos.nine.com.au&amp;newsletter=true\" target=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" title=\"clicking here\"><em><strong>clicking here<\/strong><\/em><\/a><em><strong>!<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<div class=\"mh-excerpt\"><p>Former Test skipper Mark Taylor has backed veteran Moises Henriques to make a fairytale return to the national side for the Ashes ahead of a <a class=\"mh-excerpt-more\" href=\"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=40154\" title=\"Ex-Test skipper backs Henriques&#039; fairytale return\">[&#8230;]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40154"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=40154"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40154\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":40156,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40154\/revisions\/40156"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=40154"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=40154"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=40154"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}