He told the Manchester Evening News: "Chris Kirkland has got to be England's No 1 keeper right now. He has been turning in some fantastic performances and would be an automatic choice for me if I was picking the England team.
"Chris is what I would term a fearless keeper. Like Steve Bruce says, he is prepared to put his body on the line and go where other keepers would be reluctant to go.
"Every team needs a quality keeper and we've certainly got one at Wigan."
Meanwhile, Emile Heskey has spoken about the sensational job Steve Bruce is doing at with the Latics. Heskey's comments come after much improved form during Bruce's tenure that has seen the club rise out of the relegation battle.
Heskey said: "The manager has done brilliantly for us, he has turned us around and we are starting to play some good football, but it's all about getting results at this stage.
"When you reach this part of the season, I would think most fans would be happy with some horrible football just so long as we are winning but we're playing some good stuff and picking up points and that's got to be encouraging as far as the rest of the season is concerned.
"We still have eight big games left and the aim is to try and win as many of them as possible and get ourselves safe as soon as we can."