Test XI of 12

There are twelve teams that have ever played men's test cricket.

I thought I'd try to pick the strongest possible team made up of one player from each team (with one Twelfth Man).

Starting with the weaker nations, there are some shoe-ins, and you can build the structure of the team around those.

Rashid Khan is by far the greatest Afghanistan cricketer. He hasn't played much test cricket but what he has suggests he's entirely equipped for it.

Shakib Al-Hasan is by far Bangladesh's greatest cricketer.

So, we already have two spinners.

Zimbabwe's two greatest are probably Heath Streak and Andy Flower. Flower takes its and is a batter-wicketkeeper. Perfect.

Ireland is the only country that hasn't had a great cricketer, if you don't count Eoin Morgan. Harry Tector is very promising. He's 12th man.

So we have 3 and a back-up. Now it gets trickier. There are several options for every country.

We need two openers, unless Andy Flower does it, which is asking a lot. We don't need loads of all-rounders, which is tricky, as so many of the greatest cricketers are all-rounders.

So ... Australia has to be Don Bradman. Otherwise what's the point....

South Africa ... I think it has to be Jacques Kallis, unless we find ourselves severely unbalanced.

Sri Lanka - Murali or Sangakkara. I'm going for Sanga. We have two spinners already. 

So now we have three or four great batters who aren't openers. We need more bowlers.

So - first shocker. Not Sobers. We need some proper bowlers. I'm going for Marshall or Ambrose. Marshall. [the issue here would be Sobers and Rabada/Steyn or Kallis and Marshall/Ambrose. Almost impossible to choose ...]

New Zealand - Hadlee or Williamson. Has to be Hadlee. Now we have two great opening bowlers - Hadlee and Marshall.

Pakistan ... Imran Khan is their greatest. But we have Hadlee. And we don't have a left-arm pace bowler. So it's going to be Wasim Akram.

Now England. The most flexible. Several great cricketers, but none that stand way way above. So England can fit the team. So Jack Hobbs. Possibly the greatest opener ever.

And India. Well, Tendulkar feels the obvious choice, but we need an opener. Gavaskar or Sehwag. Or Rohit Sharma? I think i have to show some respect and go for Gavaskar.

So, here's my team:

Jack Hobbs

Sunil Gavaskar

Kumar Sangakkara

Don Bradman

Jacques Kallis

Andy Flower (wkt)

Shakib Al-Hasan

Richard Hadlee

Malcolm Marshall

Wasim Akram

Rashid Khan

It's not the best team ever, but it's pretty well balanced. Maybe Ambrose for Marshall for a different height. Maybe Sobers and Rabada/Stein. Apart from that, I think most of it is self-explanatory.