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Cape Town - England Test skipper Joe Root has named his best-ever cricket XI, with former Proteas all-rounder Jacques Kallis and ODI skipper AB de Villiers selected.
Root 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 England batsman named the usual suspects, which included Sachin Tendulkar and Shane Warne, both of whom regularly make such lists.
Former Proteas legend Kallis slotted in at No 4 on Root's list and although the two have never played together, the England batsman said Kallis had a "massive influence" on the all-rounder.
Kallis, who retired from international cricket in 2014, played 166 Tests for South Africa scoring 13 289 runs and taking 292 wickets in the process.
When referring to De Villiers, Root said that the South African was a fantastic player to watch.
"He can keep, field and he has even got wickets, and obviously he has scored some match-winning runs for South Africa. He is a fantastic player for South Africa for a number of years."
Root won't be playing against De Villiers in the upcoming four-Test series in July after the Proteas batsman controversially ruled himself out to manage his workload.
De Villiers has played 106 Tests for the Proteas to date and scored 8074 runs with an average of 50.46.
Meanwhile Root, who is the No 3 Test batsman in the world, has played 53 Tests for England to date and scored 4594 at an average of 52.8.
Joe Root's all-time XI:
Michael Vaughan (England), Alastair Cook (England - captain), Sachin Tendulkar (India), Jacques Kallis (South Africa), Virat Kohli (India), AB de Villiers (South Africa), Kumar Sangakkara (Sri Lanka - wicketkeeper), Andrew Flintoff (England), Shane Warne (Australia), Mitchell Johnson (Australia), Glenn McGrath (Australia)
