Former Australia all-rounder Moises Henriques will captain Portugal’s national cricket team as it attempts to qualify for the T20 World Cup for the first time, Cricket Portugal announced via Instagram on Tuesday, August 11, 2026. Henriques will lead a 14-man squad at the T20 World Cup Europe Sub-Regional Qualifier C in Finland, where Portugal face Israel, Germany, Greece, and Czech Republic in Group B, with the tournament running from August 14-20, 2026.
There is a particular symmetry to this appointment that will not be lost on anyone tracing Henriques’ journey. Born in Madeira, the same Portuguese island that produced Cristiano Ronaldo, he built an international cricket career thousands of miles away in Australia, one that spanned four Tests, 16 One-Day Internationals, and 24 T20Is. Now, at 39 and a year removed from retiring from Australian domestic cricket, he returns to represent the nation of his birth in a competition that could put Portuguese cricket on a map it has never occupied before.
Finland: For a country with no prior presence at cricket’s global showpiece, the stakes attached to this Sub-Regional Qualifier are considerable. Portugal have never featured at a T20 World Cup, and the pathway laid out in Finland this month represents the first rung of a long ladder toward the 2028 tournament in Australia and New Zealand. That Henriques, a player of genuine international pedigree, has been entrusted with leading the side speaks to the ambition Cricket Portugal is investing in this campaign.
A leader forged far from home
Henriques’ experience sets him apart from most of the squad he will now captain. Few, if any, of his teammates will have played international cricket at the level he did during his years with Australia, and his tactical nous and composure under pressure are likely to be central to how Portugal approach unfamiliar opposition. His retirement from domestic cricket in Australia last year freed him to take on this role, one that carries as much symbolic weight as competitive significance given his Madeiran roots.
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Portugal will need every ounce of that experience against a Group B field that includes established European cricket nations in Germany and Czech Republic, alongside Israel and Greece.
The road to Australia and New Zealand
The format ahead is unforgiving in its structure. Group B winners advance to a final, with the overall winners of the Sub-Regional Qualifier progressing to the European regional final, where they will meet Scotland, Jersey, and Denmark. Only the top two teams from that regional final will earn places in the global qualifier for the 2028 T20 World Cup, meaning Portugal’s task in Finland is merely the opening test of a demanding qualification marathon.
That context matters. A positive showing in Group B would not deliver a World Cup berth outright, but it would keep alive a dream that, until Henriques’ appointment, would have seemed a distant prospect for Portuguese cricket. Given the calibre of opposition awaiting in the European regional final, Portugal’s performances against Israel, Germany, Greece, and Czech Republic over the coming week will determine whether that dream advances any further.
What comes next
Portugal’s campaign begins in earnest when the tournament gets under way on August 14. Attention will now turn to how Henriques marshals a largely untested squad against more established cricketing nations, and whether his international experience can translate into the kind of composure needed to navigate a tightly packed group stage. Should Portugal progress, the European regional final against Scotland, Jersey, and Denmark would represent the next, considerably steeper, step towards the global qualifier and, ultimately, a first appearance at cricket’s premier T20 event in 2028.
