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Shane Warne has named a best XI of New Zealand players from the last 25 years, but made notable exclusions in Richard Hadlee, Ian Smith and new generation stars Kane Williamson and Ross Taylor.
Warne wrote on his Facebook page: "Plenty of wonderful players I couldn't squeeze in! NZ has produced so many good players, Ross Taylor, [Mark] Greatbatch, McMillan & [Dipak] Patel were hard to leave out as were many others."
Warne played tests against the latter three but not against Taylor. He faced the New Zealanders in seven test series in his career, between 1993 and 2005.
He also left out Mark Richardson, who famously caught Warne on the boundary for 99 in the Perth test of 2001.
Warne’s NZ XI composition
The team picked by Warne is led by Stephen Fleming, and has Nathan Astle curiously opening the innings. Astle was a regular opener in ODIs but came mostly lower down the order in Tests.
John Wright is Astle’s opening partner, while Andre Jones, Crowe and Rutherford form the middle order. Craig McMillan misses out, but perhaps only narrowly. Brendon McCullum is the wicketkeeper of the side and Chris Cairns the all-rounder.
The pace bowling attack in formed by Shane Bond and Sanny Morrison, with Daniel Vettori given the spinner’s duties.
Shane Warne's New Zealand test team of the past 25 years (of those he played against): Nathan Astle, John Wright, Andrew Jones, Martin Crowe, Stephen Fleming (captain), Ken Rutherford, Brendon McCullum, Chris Cairns, Daniel Vettori, Shane Bond, Danny Morrison.
Warne also tweeted to the chosen captain of his side, Stephen Fleming, asking him if he agreed with his choices. Fleming is yet to reply.
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