Henriques out to emulate Italy with new role at Portugal

Former Australia international Moises Henriques has admitted he took inspiration from Italy's debut campaign at the ICC Men's T20 World Cup earlier this year when switching allegiances to lead Portugal in their quest to qualify for the next edition of the 20-over showcase.

Henriques played 44 matches for Australia across all formats from 2009 to 2021, but recently decided to switch to the country of his birth in Portugal to try and help them win a place at the 2028 edition of the T20 World Cup.

Their quest to reach the 2028 event in Australia and New Zealand commences in Finland on Friday when Portugal will take part in the ICC Men's T20 World Cup Europe Sub-regional Qualifier C, with just the winner of the 10-team event progressing through to the regional qualifier.

It's almost the exact same path that Italy negotiated when they qualified for the T20 World Cup at the start of this year under the captaincy of another former Australia international in Joe Burns and Henriques is hoping Portugal can do similar.

"Obviously, the ideal, the nirvana, would be to replicate what Italy have done," Henriques told the BBC Stumped podcast.

"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 are drawn in Group B at the Sub-Regional event and will face off against Czech Republic, Germany, Greece and Israel and need to finish on top of that group to play the winner of Group A in the final.

Their first match in Finland comes against Israel at the Tikkurila Cricket Ground in Vantaa on Friday and Henriques is confident his squad can make a winning start.

"I was quietly and pleasantly surprised with the quality of cricketers that we've got in the team," Henriques said.

"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."

For the first time, all Finland matches in the tournament will have Finnish commentary on ICC.tv and YLE Areena, the online streaming and catch-up service of the Finnish Public Broadcaster.

All the matches of the Qualifier will be available to watch on ICC.tv.

ICC Men’s T20 World Cup Europe Sub-Regional Qualifier C Fixtures

Friday, 14 August 2026

Spain vs Finland - Kerava National Cricket Ground, 11:00 EEST
Portugal vs Israel - Tikkurila Cricket Ground, 11:00 EEST
Isle of Man vs Luxembourg - Kerava National Cricket Ground, 16:00 EEST
Germany vs Czechia - Tikkurila Cricket Ground, 16:00 EEST

Saturday, 15 August 2026

Czechia vs Greece - Kerava National Cricket Ground, 11:00 EEST
Spain vs Isle of Man - Tikkurila Cricket Ground, 11:00 EEST
Germany vs Portugal - Kerava National Cricket Ground, 16:00 EEST
Finland vs Bulgaria - Tikkurila Cricket Ground, 16:00 EEST

Monday, 17 August 2026

Israel vs Germany - Kerava National Cricket Ground, 11:00 EEST
Bulgaria vs Isle of Man - Tikkurila Cricket Ground, 11:00 EEST
Greece vs Portugal - Kerava National Cricket Ground, 16:00 EEST
Luxembourg vs Spain - Tikkurila Cricket Ground, 16:00 EEST

Tuesday, 18 August 2026

Greece vs Germany - Kerava National Cricket Ground, 11:00 EEST
Finland vs Luxembourg - Tikkurila Cricket Ground, 11:00 EEST
Czechia vs Israel - Kerava National Cricket Ground, 16:00 EEST
Bulgaria vs Spain - Tikkurila Cricket Ground, 16:00 EEST

Thursday, 20 August 2026

Luxembourg vs Bulgaria - Kerava National Cricket Ground, 11:00 EEST
Portugal vs Czechia - Tikkurila Cricket Ground, 11:00 EEST
Isle of Man vs Finland - Kerava National Cricket Ground, 16:00 EEST
Israel vs Greece - Tikkurila Cricket Ground, 16:00 EEST

Friday, 21 August 2026

3rd Place Play-Off - Kerava National Cricket Ground, 11:00 EEST
7th Place Play-Off - Tikkurila Cricket Ground, 11:00 EEST
5th Place Play-Off - Tikkurila Cricket Ground, 16:00 EEST
Final - Kerava National Cricket Ground, 16:00 EEST