Australia’s legendary leg-spinner Shane Warne reckons that former West Indies captain Sir Viv Richards is the best batsman he has ever seen on a cricket pitch. At the same time, Warne left no stone unturned in pressing the Indian skipper, Virat Kohli, saying the is among the greatest to have played the game of cricket. He feels Kohli is ‘pushing that conversation’ and taking the legacy forward of legendary batsmen.

Shane Warne also said Sachin Tendulkar and Brian Lara are the two best batsmen during his playing days. In an Instagram video, he announced the best Australian ODI side, World ODI XI and Indian Premier League (IPL) team. Talking about the same, the bowling legend said, “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.”

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Warne also opined that Steve Smith should be kept away from captaincy not be burdened with the captaincy role again and should just be allowed to bat the way he does without any added pressure. Smith made a dream comeback after being banned for 12 months due to ball-tampering as the former skipper played a pivotal role in Australia retaining the Ashes.

The legendary spinner also picked Smith, Kohli and New Zealand skipper Kane Williamson as the top three batsmen of the modern-day cricket, adding Smith is his favorite current Australian batsman.

Explaining the same, Warne said, “Steve Smith…tough to go past him he is my favorite at the moment. What mental toughness, love watching David Warner too. The top three would be Smith, Kohli and Kane Williamson. Maybe one day down the line. I don’t think they will ever ask me but maybe one day who knows.”

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Warne further picked Mark Taylor as the best captain he has played under.

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 XI: Virender Sehwag, Sanath Jayasuriya, Sachin Tendulkar, Brian Kara, Kevin Pietersen, Kumar Sangakkara, Andrew Flintoff, Wasim Akram, Daniel Vettori, Shoaib Akhtar, Curtly Ambrose.

IPL India XI: Rohit Sharma, Virender Sehwag, Virat Kohli, Yuvraj Singh, Yusuf Pathan, MS Dhoni, Ravindra Jadeja, Harbhajan Singh, Zaheer Khan, Siddharth Trivedi, Munaf Patel.