As Cricket South Africa continues to find a suitable leader for their Test side, the experienced Proteas spinner Keshav Maharaj has on Thursday (May 7) put his hands up for the role.

The CSA had appointed Quinton de Kock as South Africa’s limited-overs captain after Faf du Plessis stepped down as both Test and T20I captain in February after being stripped of the ODI captaincy following the team’s poor outing in the World Cup 2019.

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While the CSA is yet to find a suitable candidate to replace Du Plessis in the five-day format, Maharaj has revealed his intentions of leading the Proteas despite not being among the frontrunners for the role.

The spinner made it clear that captaining South Africa in all three formats of the game is very much part of his ambitions while revealing his life-long dream of lifting the World Cup as captain for the country.

The 30-year-old, who has been known as a red-ball specialist, recently led the Dolphins to their second Momentum One-Day Cup trophy in three years. The Dolphins were awarded the title by Cricket South Africa after the season was curtailed due to the coronavirus pandemic.

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Maharaj was quoted as saying by Sport24: “I've really enjoyed captaincy from the time I've been handed the opportunity this past season. I really want to captain the Proteas. It's been my dream. Not a lot of people in the national set-up actually know that, but the few who have approached me on the matter know that.”

The spinner further added, “I do want to captain the South African team across all three formats and I want to raise a World Cup trophy in my hands and as the leader of the side. Apart from wanting to play for the Proteas, like a childhood dream, captaining the team to a World Cup-winning campaign would be everything I’ve ever dreamed of.”

With 110 Test wickets under his belt in 30 Tests, he is South Africa’s premier spinner but he could manage to play only seven ODIs and is yet to feature in T20I cricket.

Maharaj signed off by saying, “I have to buy my time in ODI cricket, and in Test cricket as well, to score some big runs to help my chances of selection. If I can help the team go No 1 across all three formats then I’m doing my job really well.”

(With Sport24 Inputs)