I actually reckon Henriques has a better setup to deal with that than he does the moving ball at medium pace. He always has a lot of time to play his shots and his footwork is very precise. Always someone I associated with hard hands though, hence my surprise and his ability to play spin so well here.
His footwork and judgement of length has been really impressive here - has barely looked in trouble
He's played so late, that's what has surprised me most. What you say about the medium pace stuff is right, so I expected him to struggle against prodigious turn. But he's played two gems.
yeah hope the **** never makes his debut
Henriques has been a revelation.
It is not just the runs he has scored and the fact that he did it in the situations that he did but the technique he reveals. Every now and then one sees a youngster come along and display a game (and I am referring to the technical aspects only) that really warms the heart. So much hype is heard or shoved down our ears about young batsmen whose flat-bed, front-foot only, play-through-the-line-and-the-rest-be-damned etc techniques that one wonders who was supervising the nets when these guys were learning the game.
Then comes a boy like Henriques. There is so much that I like about him and much has been mentioned here but let me mention just one which is an aspect where even veterans including some all time greats have been found wanting and refusing to understand the folly of the bad technique they employ which is the legacy of the changes in the lbw laws.
I refer to his playing the ball, even in defense, in front of the pads. This is one of the most important aspects of playing the sharply turning ball. Hiding the bat behind the pads, which is what the alternate method is most of the time, is always an inferior ploy and shows a lack of confidence and refusal to meet the ball where one feels it will be at the time of contact. The pad as a second line of defense has metamorphed, for most, as a first line of defense and the bat as an appendage and a circumstantial evidence of " look-I-am-offering-a-stroke", and then into a way of playing the ball even when actually offering a stroke.
Meeting the ball in front of the pads in defense (front foot defense) and besides or in front of the pad in stroke play is what should be emphasised but fewer and fewer batsmen around the world are doing this with the resultant miseries even against moderately competent spinners if the tracks start to take turn.
So many people support the bat behind the pad method only because so many people never learn how to play quality spin on helpful tracks which once again emphasises the need for bowler friendly conditions to help produce top notch techniques.
Play the ball in front and you have to learn to actually play it where it is not just put bat and pad in the approximate area where the ball is going to be.
Play the ball in front and the soft bat pad ballooned catches will be replaced, if you do edge it, with sharper and more difficult to quickly catch chances.
Playing the ball in front of the pads does not mean playing it early. It just means playing it and not waiting for it to come and hit where it will.
With the umpires less and less likely to offer the batsmen the benefit of doubt this discredited reason for hiding the bat behind the pads is also not very relevant today.
Of course, BCCI's reluctance to adopt the UDRS means that games involving India still give the batsmen some incentive to play for getting these 'doubtful benefits' from unsure umpires.
By the way, it is the Indian batsmen who benefit more from BCCI's refusal to adopt the technology and the Indian bowlers who suffer from the stance but we all know which players count with BCCI don't we and which, or rather who, amongst them counts the most