Earmarked very early in his career as South Africa's future Test captain, Aiden Markram, however, is forced to leave those thoughts shortly as he looks to regain personal form and rejuvenate his dwindling career in the coming months. 

The 26-year-old, easily one of the finest batting talents to have come out of the rainbow nation in recent years, has been struggling for the last 18 months with the bat and says, while captaincy is something he enjoys, it isn't currently on his radar. 

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"In terms of captaincy, it is something I really enjoy doing, but I have not put much focus on that," Markram told reporters before he faces up against Sri Lanka in a two-match Test series starting in Centurion on the Boxing Day (December 26). 

"I am playing for my spot again, so for me to be thinking about the captaincy is certainly not on my radar. I haven’t been good enough over the past 18 months."

In his first 10 Tests, Markram averaged 55.55 with 1,000 runs under his belt. However, in his previous 10 Tests, that average has dropped down significantly to just 22.31 with 424 runs. 

For what Markram would've certainly been in the race if not for this horrible patch, South Africa recently appointed wicketkeeper batsman Quinton de Kock as the Test captain on an interim basis. 

The free-flowing right-hand batsman, though, feels mentally refreshed after a long break due to COVID-19 pandemic. 

"I played a lot of cricket where I was struggling, so I didn't have time to reflect on things that maybe worked in the past and just slow things down," he said.

"It felt like everything was becoming more and more rushed, and when you are out of form it is a tough place to be. It can be a snowball effect. So that time we had off was great to clear the mind," Markram added. 

(Inputs from Reuters)