Chris Lynn

A destructive batter in the shorter forms of the game, Chris Lynn is a player who will force people to pay thousands to watch him while in full flow.  From Brisbane, Queensland, Lynn made his debut for the state in the year 2010. He debuted in all three domestic formats in the space of three months. 

Although Queensland lost, Chris Lynn scored a majestic 139-run knock when the team was asked to follow on by Western Australia in what was just his second Shield game. This knock made Lynn the fourth-youngest player after Andrew Symonds, Jimmy Maher, and Martin Love to score a hundred for Queensland.

Lynn does have more than a respectable First-class record with more than 2500 runs at an average of 43.53 and also a pretty good List A career but it is the shortest format of the game he has been more comfortable with. In fact, Lynn was picked for the Australian T20I side for the first time in January 2014 after a fantastic 2014-15 BBL season wherein he had scored 243 runs at a strike-rate of 148.17. This wasn’t a one-off performance as Lynn had done well for the Heat in previous too including the title-winning season in 2012-13. 

The right-hander scored an impressive 33 off 19 against England on his debut at the Bellerive Oval but he has not been able to establish himself as a regular member of the side due to injuries and inconsistent performances at the international level. The first time, Lynn underwent surgery on his left shoulder in 2014 just before the Matador One-Day Cup was set to begin. He also missed the beginning of the Sheffield Shield season. Once Lynn returned to action, he came up with a superb 250-run knock against Victoria in the Sheffield Shield. However, unfortunately, Lynn suffered an injury on the same shoulder just before the 2015-16 Matador Cup once again. 

At the BBL, however, Lynn has only grown from strength to strength and went onto have highly successful seasons in 2015-16 and 2016-17. He bagged the ‘Player of the Tournament’ award in both these seasons. The remarkable thing about the 2016-17 BBL season is that Lynn only played five matches but he scored a remarkable 309 runs at a strike-rate of 177.59. The consistency in the BBL has been so remarkable that holds the records for both the ‘Most runs in BBL history’ and the ‘Most Sixes in BBL history’. Lynn along with former Kiwi skipper Brendon McCullum was even named as the ‘Bash Brothers’ for their extraordinary ball striking while playing together for Brisbane Heat.

On the basis of this form, Australia decided to hand Lynn an ODI cap against Pakistan at his home ground in Brisbane. Just if his previous troubles weren’t enough, Lynn injured his left shoulder yet again during the IPL and opted for surgery. This meant that he had to miss out on the Champions Trophy. He injured the same shoulder once again during a T20I tri-series final in Auckland but luckily didn’t require surgery once again and made it to the 2018 IPL successfully. His second chance in ODI cricket came later that year against South Africa but he failed to convert the starts and managed only 59 runs in three matches. 

The Australian selectors did have Lynn in their plans for the 2019 ICC ODI World Cup but eventually didn’t consider owing to the obvious risks of injuries and inconsistency at the highest level. In the IPL, Lynn has been part of four franchises so far. The opener was part of the Deccan Chargers and Sunrisers Hyderabad set-ups during 2011-2013 but played only one game.

For the 2014 IPL season, Lynn was picked by Kolkata Knight Riders for whom he had a pretty productive career until the 2019 season. For KKR, he scored 1274 runs from 40 matches. Just ahead of the 2020 IPL season, Mumbai Indians bought Lynn after he was released by KKR. The Queenslander has also had a very good time both in the Caribbean and Pakistan while playing for franchises like Jamaican Tallawahs, Trinbago Knight Riders, Guyana Amazon Warriors, and Lahore Qalandars.

Lynn would be still hopeful of having at least 5-6 more years in the T20 circuit. If he remains injury-free, Lynn will definitely be a match-winner for most franchises.