Birthday special: Chris Lynn – Brilliant T20 batsman, unfulfilled Australia career

Having talent is one thing, but making the most of it at the highest stage of the game is a different ball game altogether. Over the years, one has seen several highly talented players failing to make it big in international cricket and one such cricketer is Australia’s Chris Lynn. The hard-hitting batsman has proven himself in T20 cricket by performing in several leagues across the world but has failed to live up to the expectations in international cricket.

Such has been his struggle in international cricket that he is nowhere in the picture to earn a spot in the Australian team. A player of Lynn’s calibre has played only 4 ODIs and 18 T20Is so far since making his debut in international cricket in 2014. Lynn has not played for Australia since 2018 and it won’t be surprising if he never gets another chance.

The right-handed batsman had given very few reasons to the selectors to retain him in the team. In 4 ODIs and 18 T20Is, he could not score a fifty even once. In both formats, his highest score is 44. His average is not good either, as he averaged less than 20 in both formats. Unsurprisingly, Lynn is nowhere close to earning a recall from his national team.

But while his record in international cricket has left a lot to be desired, his record in domestic and franchise cricket has been really impressive. Lynn is still one of the most in-demand T20 batsmen in the world and his record speaks for itself. So far, the 31-year-old has played 210 T20s and has scored more than 5,700 runs with the help of 39 fifties as well as two centuries.

In the last few years, he has been plying his trade in India, West Indies, Pakistan, UAE as well as Canada apart from his home country in various T20 leagues and is still looking set to do that for a good number of years. What can describe his reputation in the T20s better than the fact that he is currently playing for Mumbai Indians, the most successful IPL team of all time?

Lynn might not have managed to deliver in international cricket but his performance in T20s around the world stands testimony to his brilliance in the shortest format of the game.