Moises Henriques to captain Portugal at European T20 qualifying tournament in Finland starting on Friday

Moises Henriques, who retired from Australian domestic cricket in July after making 420 appearances across all formats, will captain Portugal at a European sub-regional T20 World Cup qualifying tournament in Finland starting on Friday, he told the BBC Stumped podcast.

Henriques, 39, played four Tests, 16 one-day internationals and 24 T20s for Australia between 2009 and 2021 and has switched his international allegiance to Portugal, the country of his birth. He was born in Funchal on the island of Madeira and moved to Sydney with his family aged two when his father Alvaro relocated the household; Alvaro played second division football in Portugal and took a job working in a warehouse, where he is still employed today. Henriques said cricket helped him integrate as a child: "Moises isn't the most common name going around in an Australian school, especially at that time," adding "I had a few issues at school early on. I didn't speak English that well." "Cricket gave me that little bit of confidence I probably needed as a kid to feel a part of something."

Henriques said he "didn't even know Portugal had a cricket team" until five years ago but has been impressed by the squad's standard and set a clear aim for the campaign: "Obviously, the ideal, the nirvana, would be to replicate what Italy have done," he said. "Whether that's realistic for this World Cup, or the following, I don't know. We'll only be able to tell in a couple games. I'm sure there's a lot of opposition that feel that they might be able to do something similar."

Portugal enter the tournament ranked 37th in the world and have been drawn in Group B of the 10-team event in Finland alongside Czech Republic, Germany, Greece and Israel. Should Portugal progress from Finland, the next stage would be a European final regional qualifier featuring Scotland, Jersey and Denmark next year.

Henriques contrasted his Australian career with his current role, acknowledging the prestige of a Baggy Green while describing the emotional pull of captaining Portugal: "I went back to Madeira last year and it was the first time I'd been back, but I felt really connected to the place. When I played for Australia, my family also felt I was representing them as well. I'm representing the motherland, so to speak, and it's going to feel somewhat similar. Hopefully we can make a positive impact trying to grow the sport in Portugal and probably Europe more broadly as well." He also joked that, if he leads Portugal to the World Cup, he "might get a helicopter pad" named after him.

The Portugal squad includes other players with professional experience, such as 26-year-old batter Cameron Shekleton, who has played first-class cricket in South Africa and appeared for the Proteas A side, and former New Zealand Under-19 captain Craig Cachopa, 34, who has represented Sussex, Auckland and Wellington. Reflecting on the group, Henriques said: "I was quietly and pleasantly surprised with the quality of cricketers that we've got in the team. There's a lot of high-level cricketers going around, which I probably wasn't expecting a few years ago when I first started entertaining the thought of playing."

Henriques faces match conditions he has not dealt with for decades: "It would be 25 years since I've actually played a game of cricket on a synthetic wicket," he said, adding "I'm coming out of back surgery about five months ago so the biggest challenge bowling will be landing on a synthetic wicket on coming off a full run-up. Obviously we train a lot indoors on synthetic wickets so hopefully I can make the adjustment."

Following the Finland qualifier, Henriques is scheduled to play for Glasgow Cosmic in the inaugural European T20 Premier League. Listen to the full interview with Moises Henriques on the BBC Stumped podcast.