Lynn to chase Cup dream with Bulls

Queensland big-hitter Chris Lynn has confirmed he will suit up for his state in the JLT One-Day Cup, prioritising a push for a World Cup berth and cutting short his T20 stint in the Caribbean.

Lynn is currently with the Trinbago Knight Riders in the Caribbean Premier League, but that competition's finals overlap with the start of the Australian domestic summer.

Trinbago are currently sitting top of the CPL with four wins from six matches, with that tournament's finals to play out between September 12 and 17.

The Queensland Bulls' JLT Cup campaign begins on September 16 against Victoria in Townsville. Lynn hasn't played a one-dayer for his state since 2013.

With the Bulls Sheffield Shield-winning captain Jimmy Peirson out of action following hamstring surgery, and regular skipper Usman Khawaja likely to be on duty with the Australian Test team for matches against Pakistan in the UAE, Lynn is ready to vault into the captaincy.

He was named the state's vice-captain after collecting a late contract for the JLT Cup following Jason Floros's decision to focus on completing his tertiary studies.

"Chris was pretty clear about his involvement with the Bulls before he headed off to the CPL and with the injury to Jimmy Peirson, he has an important role to fill in the leadership group with the experience he can bring to the team,'' Queensland coach Wade Seccombe told News Corp.

This year's CPL has not been the happiest of on-field hunting grounds for Lynn so far, with a top score of 46 and five other single-figure scores. He's compiled 74 runs in his six matches at 12.33 after being bought by the franchise for US$130,000 in March.

But the lure of the overseas T20 circuit pales next to the prize of a spot in Australian gold at next year's 50-over showpiece in England, with the World Cup carrot dangled for Lynn by Australia coach Justin Langer.

"(Langer) has expressed that the World Cup is there, but whether or not there's a spot for me is up to me," Lynn told cricket.com.au recently.

"(Langer said to) keep the body right, and don't give anyone any reason to say no to you.

"So the chance is there but I've got to bang the door down with runs. It's as simple as that.

"If I get a World Cup spot then I'll have deserved it, and it will be awesome to be a part of. But cricket's a numbers game – you only have to look at the numbers to pick a side sometimes.

"I'll know myself whether I deserve to be there or not."

Despite his sparsity of 50-over appearances in recent years, Lynn has been encouraged by the way he made his runs in this year's Indian Premier League, despite his returns in this year's CPL.

Batting at the top of the order for Kolkata, his 491 runs (11th most in the tournament) came at a relatively sedate strike-rate of 130.23 – some 50 runs per hundred balls down on his numbers from IPL 2017. It was also the lowest strike-rate of any batsman in the tournament's top 15 run-scorers.

"We had a different line-up this year at Kolkata, so I played what was best for the team," he explained.

"I haven't played a great deal of one-day cricket but I felt like the way I played in the IPL was very similar to how I would pace myself across 50 overs.

"It wasn't exactly batting with all the bells and whistles, or just hitting boundaries – I had to grind out a lot of runs and play a lot smarter cricket.

"I feel like my game awareness is getting stronger and stronger. Being a leader in teams now is important to me – I want to lead from the front with the bat, and hopefully I can do that in Queensland colours."