CRICKET Australia is expected to have the final say on whether Chris Lynn plays for the Brisbane Heat this weekend ahead the start of the T20 tri-series on Saturday week.
Batting sensation Lynn was named in Australia’s squad for the series, which also involves England and New Zealand.
That’s despite a calf injury that cost him a spot in Australia’s squad for the present one-day series against England and his place in the Heat team for Brisbane’s past three BBL matches.
The recovering Lynn is set to play for the Heat in a practice match Wednesday.
A decision will then be made on Thursday, most likely by CA, whether Lynn plays for the Heat on Saturday night at the Gabba against the Melbourne Renegades, or put in cotton wool ahead of Australia’s T20 clash against New Zealand the following Saturday at the SCG.
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“Each day the calf is feeling better,” Lynn said. “Each day is going to be important between now and Australia’s game against New Zealand.”
Lynn trained strongly on Monday, with running, throwing and battling all part of his regimen.
Australia’s T20 squad also includes Hobart Hurricanes batsman D’Arcy Short, who destroyed the Heat at the Gabba earlier this month with an unbeaten 122.
Short can be the next David Warner according to one of Australia’s greatest limited overs batsmen.
Twenty20 chief selector Mark Waugh could banish the white ball to the fence better than most in his day and believes Short’s meteoric rise is the shot in the arm Australia needs in a format they have failed to nail down in more than a decade of trying.
Warner was a virtual unknown when he took the world by storm by blitzing South Africa on T20 debut at the MCG way back in 2009.
Short, who has been an unstoppable force for the Hurricanes as the leading run-scorer in the BBL this season, is an indigenous kid from Katherine in the Northern Territory who plays the game with no fear.
Waugh admits keeping a Twenty20 squad together from now right through to the World Twenty20 to be played in Australia in 2020 is a near impossibility, but he lauded Short as one of the most exciting prospects to come through the ranks in years.
“He reminds me of David Warner a bit with his clean ball striking. He’s come from nowhere for a lot of us, I hadn’t seen him before last year in the Big Bash,” Waugh said.
AUSTRALIAN T20 SQUAD: David Warner (c), Aaron Finch (vc), Ashton Agar, Alex Carey, Ben Dwarshuis, Travis Head, Chris Lynn, Glenn Maxwell, Kane Richardson, D’Arcy Short, Billy Stanlake, Marcus Stoinis, Andrew Tye, Adam Zampa.
