XtraTime Web Desk: Legendary Australian spinner Shane Warne feels that Viv Richards is the greatest batsman of all time that he has ever seen, but currently India skipper Virat Kohli is “pushing that conversation”.
“Viv is the best batsman I have ever seen. Sachin (Tendulkar) and (Brian) Lara are the two best batters I have played with and now across all formats Virat is just the best. It is tough to think anyone is better than Viv but Virat is pushing that conversation,” Warne said in an Instagram live where he picked the best Australian ODI side, World ODI XI and Indian Premier League (IPL) team in the four years he has been a part of the cash-rich league.
Beside that Warne has also picked Sachin Tendulkar and Virender Sehwag in his World XI side.
Warne also picked Smith, Kohli and New Zealand skipper Kane Williamson as the top three batters at the moment, adding Smith as his favourite current Australian batsman.
“Steve Smith…tough to go past him he is my favourite at the moment. What mental toughness, love watching David Warner too. Top three would be Smith, Kohli and Kane Williamson.”
Teams (during Warne’s playing time)
Australia XI
Mark Waugh, Adam Gilchrist, Ricky Ponting, Dean Jones, Allan Border, Micheal Clarke, Michael Bevan, Andrew Symonds, Brett Lee, Craig McDermott, Glenn McGrath
Rest of the World ODI side
Virender Sehwag, Sanath Jayasuriya, Sachin Tendulkar, Brian Kara, Kevin Pietersen, Kumar Sangakkara, Andrew Flintoff, Wasim Akram, Daniel Vettori, Shoaib Akhtar, Curtly Ambrose.
IPL Indian XI
Rohit Sharma, Virender Sehwag, Virat Kohli, Yuvraj Singh, Yusuf Pathan, MS Dhoni, Ravindra Jadeja, Harbhajan Singh, Zaheer Khan, Siddharth Trivedi, Munaf Patel.