Shane Warne picks Allan Border as captain of best Australian XI he played with

Former Australian spinner Shane Warne picked Allan Border as the captain of the greatest Australian XI he played with. Talking to fans via Instagram Live from Australia, Warne named the eleven names along-with a 12th man.

Captain of Australia's maiden WC triumph in 1987, Border was picked to lead a side that featured four former national team captains. He picked a balanced side that consisted of six batsmen, a wicket-keeper, four bowlers and one 12th man in bowler Merv Hughes.

Warne, who represented the Aussies between 1992-2007 elaborated on his favorite XI by picking multiple players for each position and carefully filtering out the picks through their performances overseas, against specific teams and overall influence.

The following is Warne's pick for the greatest Australian XI he was ever-part of:

• Matthew Hayden
• Michael Slater
• Ricky Ponting
• Mark Waugh
• Allan Border (Captain)
• Steve Waugh
• Adam Gilchrist (Wicket-keeper)
• Glenn McGrath
• Bruce Reid
• Jason Gillespie
• Tim May
• Merv Hughes (12th man)

Allan Border led Australia to their maiden World Cup win in 1987

The 50-year-old explained how he found it extremely tough to name the openers and finally chose the likes of Matthew Hayden and Michael Slater. According to him, the current Aussie coach Justin Langer, right-hand batsman David Boon, Geoff Marsh, and former captain Mark Taylor also presented a tough case for the openers slot. However, Warne went with the destructive Hayden and work horse, Slater to make a compelling opening duo.

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Although Warne gave the wicket-keeping responsibilities to swashbuckling batsman Gilchrist, he found it extremely hard to leave out Ian Healy. According to Warne, Healy's antics behind the stumps were unparalleled but Gilchrist had an edge through his destructive hitting abilities.

The likes of Stuart Macgill also popped up as one of the options for the lone spinner in the side, however, Warne went with the guile of Tim May. May took a total of 114 international wickets in 71 matches between 1987 to 1995.