Shane Warne chose his toughest opponents from each Test nation, and Hansie Cronje and Jacques Kallis got the joint nod from South Africa.

As part of Warne’s commentary duties for Sky Sports during the Test match between England and Pakistan, he was asked to pick one from each nation, but couldn’t decide between Cronje and Kallis.

There were some household names on the list including the likes of West Indies’ Brian Lara and India’s Sachin Tendulkar, but also making the list was Zimbabwe’s first ever Test captain David Houghton and former Bangladesh skipper Mohammad Ashraful.

The stats suggest England’s Graham Gooch and Pakistan’s Saeed Anwar were fair choices, given their respective averages against Warne read 66.16 and 56.53.

Cronje also successfully dealt with Warne, averaging 42.75 from their 12 matches together, but Warne had the upper hand over Kallis, with a batting average of 36.85 against the leggie, far below his career average.

Warne’s best

Bangladesh: Mohammad Ashraful

England: Graham Gooch

India: Sachin Tendulkar

Pakistan: Saeed Anwar

New Zealand: Martin Crowe

South Africa: Jacques Kallis/Hansie Cronje

Sri Lanka: Aravinda de Silva

West Indies: Brian Lara

Zimbabwe: David Houghton

Photo: Hamish Blair/Getty Images