Cricket South Africa say they are in no rush to find a replacement captain for Graeme Smith, who retired from the sport at the conclusion of yesterday's third test against Australia in Cape Town.
Two candidates appear to have the strongest claims - AB de Villiers and Faf du Plessis - both already captains of the national side in the shorter formats of the game.
CSA chief executive officer Haroon Lorgat says South Africa's focus will first shift to this month's Twenty20 World Cup in Bangladesh, which gives the selectors some breathing space before the need to appoint a test captain.
The next test series is in Sri Lanka in July.
South Africa have only had four regular test captains since readmission to international cricket in 1991 - Kepler Wessels, Hansie Cronje, Shaun Pollock and Smith.
