Proteas duo included in Vettori's best ever XI

Cape Town - Former Black Caps captain Daniel Vettori has named his best-ever cricketing XI with Proteas star batsman AB de Villiers selected while former Proteas all-rounder Jacques Kallis was picked as 12th man.

Vettori revealed his all-time XI on the Lord's Cricket YouTube channel, with the criteria being that he had to have played with or against them, or have been strongly influenced by the players mentioned.

The Kiwi all-rounder named the usual suspects, which included Sachin Tendulkar and Shane Warne, both of whom regularly make such lists.

Proteas ODI skipper De Villiers slotted in at No 4 of Vettori's batting line-up behind Royal Challengers Bangalore team-mate Virat Kohli.

"(De Villiers is) probably one of the greatest batsman of all-time," said Vettori.

"He is getting better and better and is an amazing guy to watch."

De Villiers controversially ruled himself out of the recent tour to New Zealand as well as the upcoming mid-year Test series in England, saying he needs to "manage his work load" to ensure that he reaches the 2019 Cricket World Cup.

De Villiers has played 106 Tests for the Proteas to date and scored 8074 runs with an average of 50.46.

Then, surprisingly, Vettori named Kallis - who has played 166 Tests for South Africa scoring 13 289 runs and taking 292 wickets - as 12th man.

"My twelfth man is Jacques Kallis, which is ridiculous because he should be in the team," said Vettori.

"If you put together the world's best all-rounder - you couldn't ask for anything more than JK."

Vettori retired from international cricket in 2015 and played 113 Tests for New Zealand scoring 4531 runs and took 362 wickets.

Daniel Vettori's all-time XI:

Ricky Ponting (Australia), Rahul Dravid (India), Virat Kohli - captain (India), AB de Villiers (South Africa), Sachin Tendulkar, Kumar Sangakkara (Sri Lanka), Adam Gilchrist - wicketkeeper (Australia), Shane Warne (Australia), Muttiah Muralitharan (Sri Lanka), Glenn McGrath (Australia), Sir Richard Hadlee (New Zealand)

12th-man: Jacques Kallis (South Africa)