Former Australian captain Michael Clarke has named his best Test XI in his autobiography My Story. Clarke, unsurprisingly, has named as many as seven Australian cricketers in his team, which reflects the amount of domination the Australians enjoyed during his career.

The 35-year-old has gone with Michael Slater and Matthew Hayden as his openers. Although Clarke and Slater never played Test cricket together for the Baggy Green, Clarke states that Slater was his first cricketing hero.

In his book, writing about the batsman, Clarke says: “My first cricket hero. I fell in love with the refreshing, exuberant attitude Slats brought to the game.”

There are no surprises with Clarke’s picks in the middle-order. Heavyweights of the game in Australia’s Ricky Ponting, India’s Sachin Tendulkar, West Indies’ Brian Lara and South Africa’s Jacques Kallis – all of whom who scored more than 10,000 runs in Test cricket – have been picked by Clarke.

The former Australian skipper has gone with Adam Gilchrist as his wicket-keeper. Gilchrist redefined the role of a wicketkeeper-batsman in the early noughties with his batting.

Clarke has picked good friend Shane Warne as the only spinner in the team. Despite the presence of Ponting in the side, Clarke has gone with Warne as captain, describing the legendary leg-spinner as “the best captain Australia never had”.

In the fast bowling department, Clarke has gone with Australians Glenn McGrath and Mitchell Johnson, and South Africa’s Dale Steyn. Johnson was one bowler who thrived under the captaincy of Clarke and won the Man of the Series award during Australia’s 5-0 Ashes whitewash of England in 2013-14.

Despite some fierce rivalry with Steyn over the years, Clarke writes: “We had some great battles on the field as we gave everything to the get our countries on top. I value the runs I scored against him more highly than any others.”

Sri Lanka’s Muttiah Muralitharan is the 12th man in Clarke’s team.