The Chronicle

Injured Lynn to miss out

- — Ben Horne

Chris Lynn is set to be ruled out of the one-day series against England with injury, a major blow to Australia given the faith selectors had shown in his body.

Lynn (pictured) was sent for scans after hurting his calf for the Brisbane Heat, and although the results are yet to be confirmed it’s almost certain he will be ruled out of the next BBL match.

If that’s the case Australia will make the call to replace him in the ODI squad due to a lack of preparatio­n, opening the door for Glenn Maxwell to be reconsider­ed.

Lynn was always a huge risk for the ODI series given he has freely admitted himself he is still significan­tly hampered from shoulder surgery he underwent a few months ago.

The explosive Queensland­er still can’t train at full capacity.

Heat teammate and former New Zealand captain Brendon McCullum admitted during Sunday night’s BBL coverage that Lynn should never have been picked for Australia in 50-over cricket.

“Personally, I would have liked to have seen him being kept until the T20s,” McCullum said.

“Then they can introduce him and get him back into the fold.

“But you’d never turn down the opportunit­y to play for your country and I know Lynny was very excited about it.”

Australia came out strongly to defend their decision to drop Maxwell after he averaged 20 in his past 22 ODI matches.

On top of that captain Steve Smith questioned Maxwell’s attitude to training, claiming he didn’t train “smart”.

It would be hard to find a better candidate than Maxwell, given he was a key cog in the 2015 World Cup win, but Australia may be looking to send a message and might have to find an alternativ­e. Aust v Eng: First ODI, Sunday, 1.20pm (AEST)

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