Cricket South Africa director of cricket Graeme Smith has confirmed wicketkeeper-batsman Quinton de Kock will not be appointed new Test captain.

De Kock was named T20I and ODI captain earlier this year. He, however, won’t succeed former Test captain Faf du Plessis. Du Plessis resigned two months ago.

Batsmen Temba Bavuma, Aiden Markram and Dean Elgar are likely to be among the possible candidates to be the new Test captain.

‘He [De Kock] will be our white ball captain, not Test captain going forward. We want to keep him fresh and playing well,’ said Smith.

‘I can’t tell you who it’s going to be. We are in a debate over it. There is no one person you could pinpoint right now and say that’s the guy. There are lots of players vying for selection. When we do play cricket we will see who escalates themselves.

READ: ‘We want to keep Quinton fresh, expressive’

Smith also hinted that they may ‘take a risk on someone and back them’, with the implication being that a youngster could be in line for the role.

‘We are trying to understand who has the leadership credentials and the respect. This is coming from a person who had a risk taken on then [when Smith was appointed as a young captain], it is something we would consider.’

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