Sir Ian Botham, David Gower, Bob Willis, Michael Atherton & Nasser Hussain talk tough

The Ashes has sparked some classic scraps over the years - but who do The Panel consider their toughest adversaries?

Ahead of this winter's Ashes, skysports.com caught up with former England captains David Gower, Sir Ian Botham, Bob Willis, Michael Atherton and Nasser Hussain to find out.

Here are their collective thoughts on locking horns with Lillee, battling against Border and wrestling Warne...

David Gower

Ian Chappell. Unlike my good friend, Sir Ian, I liked Chappelli. He was a rough diamond; I thought he was a real tough nut. The difference between him and Allan Border was that Chappelli was always that way, while Border learnt it. That was the difference between Border in the 1985 and 1989 Ashes. In 1985 Border was a mighty fine player but was still being a nice guy, as it were; in 1989 he was still a mighty fine player but had become Mr Nasty.

In contrast, Chappelli always had that tough streak. I think he was born with it. He's an argumentative so-and-so off the pitch; he's full of opinions and believes in them. He's definitely not one to lose an argument. He was just as combative on the pitch; he was a top-class player even if Greg was a better batsman but Chappelli was a real thorn in anyone's side, to be honest.

Bob Willis

Ian Chappell, who became captain for the last Test of the 1970/71 tour after Australia sacked Bill Lawry was a tough competitor but I played more against his brother Greg, who was a beautiful batsman to watch. Barry Richards and Greg Chappell were probably the two most elegant players during my career.

Chappell did everything in an effortless way; he was very orthodox, had a natural start at the crease, drove beautifully and a powerful cutter of the ball as well. On the bowling side of things, Jeff Thomson was certainly the fastest bowler I ever saw or faced, and that includes all of the West Indies' nuclear warheads!

It would have been interesting to see if people would have been taught to bowl like him if his career had been uninterrupted by injury. His action seemed so effortless and natural. They were pretty lively pitches in 1974/75 when Thommo made his debut; we thought he was just some bum dragged off the beach to play for Queensland.

He didn't bowl particularly well in the state match but come the Test match on a lively pitch it was a different story. The first Test became a bit of a bouncer war. We had Peter Lever, Geoff Arnold and myself so Thommo and Dennis Lillee easily outgunned us and inflicted a few injuries. We lost that series 4-1.

Sir Ian Botham

Dennis Lillee and Allan Border would be right up there at the top of my list. Lillee was just sensational - one of the best bowlers of all time - and what makes his story so remarkable is that he went on to claim 355 Test wickets despite all the back injuries he had in the early part of his career.

He went from being a young tearaway quick to someone who could still bowl fast when he wanted to, but now had all of the skills to go with that. In many ways adapting his game following the stress fractures he suffered helped him in the long run because it gave him the opportunity to develop his game.

As for Border, well, he was a bulldog; in many ways he was the Australian Kenny Barrington. Dogged, tough, he didn't give his wicket away - you had to fight for it, even more so when he became captain. After losing the Ashes to us in 1985 he turned his team around; there was no more Mr Nice Guy - his sin