Batting legend Sunil Gavaskar reckons Shubman Gill, Shreyas Iyer, and Rishabh Pant all possess strong leadership traits. However, he backed Gill to take charge of the Indian Test team.

Notably, the captaincy role in the Indian Test side remains vacant after Rohit Sharma’s retirement from the traditional format last week.

The BCCI selectors will have to appoint a new leader ahead of the Test series against England, slated to get underway on June 20 at Headingley.

"It would take a couple of years (to groom future leaders) to get to the level of our super captains (MS Dhoni, Rohit, Virat). All of them brought a different approach to captaincy," Gavaskar told PTI on Star Sports Press Room.

"When you see Gill, Iyer and Pant, three main pretenders to Indian captaincy you see an amalgamation of all three (Dhoni, Rohit, Virat). Gill probably is more competitive, when there is a decision, he is asking the umpire right away. He is probably a lot more involved,” Gavaskar said.

"Though Pant is behind the stumps, he is also very involved. Iyer too has been superb. All three have brought a lot of positivity in the way they have been captaining,” he added.

Gill, who is currently in his second season as captain of the Gujarat Titans in the IPL, haven’t led India in ODIs and Tests so far. He captained India in five T20Is during the tour of Zimbabwe last year.

Jasprit Bumrah was Rohit’s deputy in the last Test series against Australia and also captained the side in two matches, but multiple reports suggest that the ace pacer is unlikely to be handed the demanding job due to workload management concerns.