Fringe Test cricketer Moises Henriques says only more runs and wickets will put him back in selectors' minds, not the bad form of allrounder incumbent Mitch Marsh.
Henriques led NSW to a Sheffield Shield win over Western Australia on Monday after, as expected, he was dropped from their last-start defeat in Sri Lanka for Usman Khawaja.
And while selectors were good enough to let Henriques know of his axing, he didn't need an explanation as to why he was in Sydney over the past week and not Perth.
"They didn't say what I needed to do, but there's only a couple of things I can do, and that's bowl better or bat better. It's pretty simple," Henriques said on Monday.
"To be completely frank, if you need an explanation, you're playing the wrong game. You always know what you need to do as a cricketer - win games of cricket and do as well as you can with either bat or ball and in the field as well.
"All I can do is try and improve as a cricketer, try and get better, score more runs, take more wickets, worry about how I'm doing it in the process rather than actually trying to get picked."
The debate over the allrounder spot in the Test team has re-opened following Marsh's twin failures with the bat against South Africa at the WACA.
Henriques is considered the frontrunner should selectors opt to look at another allrounder, while James Faulkner remains sidelined with a knee injury.
Victorian player Marcus Stoinis is another candidate for the role.
Henrique's baggy green showing in Colombo was his first since appearing in a three-Test series against India in 2013, when he scored twin half-centuries on debut.
But while hopeful of a recall, 29-year-old Henriques said his role as captain of the Blues forced him to shelve any ambitions of breaking back into the Test team.
He scored 41 and eight in the win against the Warriors and was 0-6 in two first-innings overs.
"I don't really think about it too much. I'm trying to win games of cricket for NSW," he said.
"Probably being captain of the side takes over the thoughts, rather than what I need to do individually. Just making sure that we're winning games is my first priority."
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