Moises Henriques’ Test debut against India is proving a lot of people right.

Good judges too.

But the 26-year-old allrounder made them sweat.

“When I first saw him play I definitely knew he was going to play for Australia,” says former coach, Hamish Solomons.

“But there have been times since when I’ve thought ‘Is he going to?'”

Henriques journey to the baggy green started as a stroll in the park, but became a battle.

He’s no longer the boy wonder.

Nonetheless, he’s getting to fulfil his destiny in the first Test in Chennai.

The Portuguese son of a pro soccer player, Henriques was a sporting natural in his youth.

A freak.

And a self-taught one at that.

He would sit on his lounge room floor in Sydney’s south, with cricket bat in hand, mimicking the shots of the batsmen on TV.

Naturals aren’t necessarily students of the game, but Henriques was obsessed.

Childhood friends recall staying over, only to be woken at 4am by Moises not just sleep talking, but commentating cricket in his dreams.

“You’d sleep over at his place and he’d wake you up speaking like Tony Greig. Crapping on about Greg Blewett driving through the covers,” says Tom Sangster, a teammate from Penshurst West juniors, and later St George.

Henriques had his own scorebook and would meticulously record everything, from his monster innings on Nintendo’s Super International Cricket, to backyard contests.

“Backyard cricket was a nightmare,” says good friend and Tasmanian opener Steve Cazzulino.

“After a while if I couldn’t get him out, I’d just walk off. And he’d be yelling at me, ‘there’s a scorecard that needs to be balanced here!'”

In the first game of the Penshurst West under-10s, Henriques smashed 124 not out.

“You had to retire at 50,” says Cazzulino.

“He got 50 and when everyone else was out he came back out with the No.11.

“I’d never seen anyone hit the ball so far.”

Henriques also bowled the fastest.

He was the best talent in any team – with any shaped ball – even if he was playing years above his age.

A promising centre in the St George junior rugby league, a gifted soccer striker, and handy enough cricketer for his first NSW coach, Trevor Bayliss to compare 18-year-old Moises to Mark Waugh.

“His natural hand-eye coordination just reminded me of Mark years ago,” Bayliss told AAP.

“He could bat, bowl, field, kick a soccer ball. It really didn’t matter what he did, he could do everything.”

Solomons, a respected head coach at Kingsgrove Sports Centre Academy and one of Henriques’ junior rep mentors at St George, takes no credit for Moises’ career.

He says meddling with Henriques technique would have killed his prodigious talent.

“Essentially he was born with amazing sporting genes and he developed himself,” Solomons says.

“I remember as a 14-year-old when he first started playing at Hurstville Oval. He played this offside shot and hit it onto the roof of the canteen and over onto the road.

“It was amazing.

“It wasn’t like he tried to smash it. He just leant into it.”

A decade ago, Henriques would stand curbside on the Grand Parade at Brighton Le Sands waiting to be picked up for NSW training by teammate Stuart Clark, 11 years his senior.

Even as a teenager, it seemed the country’s most talented prospect was being chauffeur-driven to the top.

Then national chairman of selectors Trevor Hohns had circled his name.

He was the youngest person to take 10 wickets in a Sydney grade game, and a standout as Australian under-19s captain.

Henriques’ start for NSW in 2006 was the most hyped state debut since Michael Clarke.

In his second Shield match, he took 5-17 from 13 overs against Queensland.

By the end of 2009, he’d played a Twenty20 international and two one-dayers for Australia.

But largely, Moises had come back to the field.

Injuries were constant. Everything from groin, shoulder, back and ankle.

Those close to him believe he was also a victim of his own ability – fast-tracked through the grades and rushed back from injury, because he was always in everyone’s best XI.

Former Australian fast bowler, Clark believes it was expectation that took its toll.

“He’s the complete package – always the most talented cricketer coming through that I can remember,” Clark says.

“No one could understand why he hadn’t played Test cricket five years ago.

“But that’s been half the problem. He’s had so much pressure upon him.”

Critics so unanimous in believing Henriques would play Test cricket for Australia, were beginning to wonder.

The oval in Caringbah named Moises Henriques Field seemed a little premature.

But perhaps not any more.

This summer Henriques has rediscovered his mojo.

In Shield cricket, he scored 385 at 77 with the bat and took 14 wickets at 18 with the ball.

He earned a recall to the ODI team and showcased how far he’d come since last playing an international.

Not by producing the phenomenal numbers of his youth, but through cricket smarts and mental strength.

“Hopefully this is the beginning of him,” says Bayliss, the man who saw Mark Waugh in Moises.

An Indian tour and the prospect of back-to-back Ashes series in 2013 suggests Henriques might once again have the world at his feet.