Quinton de Kock will not be elevated to the position of South Africa’s Test captain, Cricket South Africa director of cricket Graeme Smith has said.

Former Test skipper Smith was appointed as interim director of cricket last December but has now landed the role on a permanent basis for a two-year term.

Faf du Plessis stepped down as Test skipper in February following de Kock’s ascension to the ODI captaincy in January. De Kock also captained South Africa in their most recent T20I assignment, the 2-1 series defeat to England two months ago. Nevertheless, while the wicketkeeper-batsman will continue to lead the white-ball sides, his leadership services will not be called upon in the longest format.

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“Quinton will be our white-ball captain and he won’t be the Test captain going forward,” Smith told reporters on Friday.

“We want to keep Quinton fresh and playing well. I’ve always believed, having been in the job myself, that captaining all three formats is challenging. We’ve seen a number of nations trying to figure out what’s best and I think across three formats, it probably doesn’t work.”

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Smith revealed that no-one has yet to be pinpointed as a replacement for du Plessis, who won 18 out of the 36 Tests he captained.

“I can’t tell you who it’s going to be,” Smith said. “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.”