Australian all-rounder Moises Henriques will be well aware of the fact that he needs to make his second chance count if he wants to cement his place in the Test squad.

A lot of eyebrows were raised when Henriques was picked ahead of Glenn Maxwell for the Test series against Sri Lanka. With his off-spin, Maxwell would have been handy on the turning pitches but the selectors kept their faith in Henriques. Henriques last played a Test for Australia during the infamous tour of India in 2014, when they were whitewashed 4-0 by the Indian team. Henriques scored two half-centuries on debut in Chennai, but added only seven runs in four hits in his next two matches and was dropped for the next match. He was picked in the squad for the South Africa tour a year later but did not play any match. With Mitchell Marsh still trying to find his feet in Test cricket, the spot for the all-rounder in the Test team is still up for grabs and Henriques remains a big contender for the spot.

Back in the National team, the all-rounder believes that he has learnt harsh lessons from his first stint in Test cricket in 2013.

“I hope I’ve improved and I hope I’ve also learnt about how hard Test cricket is, in terms of backing up day after day, Test after Test,” Henriques told reporters in Colombo on Tuesday. “You see the likes of Smithy and Davey, how they perform Test after Test and are able to bounce back and just be extremely consistent all the time.

“It’s not just about one good performance or a couple of good performances. You’ve got to keep churning them and keep being as good as you can for as long as you can. After one good Test I felt like I’d displayed that I was good enough, but just not consistent enough. That’s the biggest thing, is to do it over and over again. I certainly feel like I’ve improved as a cricketer and given the opportunity, I’d like to think I could do even better than I did then.”