England have appointed Joe Root as their new Test captain.
Yorkshire batsman Root succeeds Alastair Cook, who resigned last week after a record 59-match tenure.
The England and Wales Cricket Board canvassed the opinion of several senior players before confirming the 26-year-old had been handed the job on Monday morning.
Durham all-rounder Ben Stokes will be Root's vice-captain, the ECB announced.
Root, who had been Cook's vice-captain since May last year, will have five months to prepare for his first Test in charge - against South Africa at Lord's on July 6.
"It is a huge honour to be given the England Test captaincy," he said in an England and Wales Cricket Board statement which confirmed his appointment on Monday morning.
"I feel privileged, humbled and very excited."
All-rounder Ben Stokes will be Root's vice-captain, as England seek to establish a new leadership era on the pitch not just against South Africa and West Indies in the forthcoming summer but in time to face Australia in next winter's Ashes.
England's record Test run scorer Cook is expected to remain at the top of the order for the foreseeable future.
Root, who averages almost 53 in his 53 Tests to date, will therefore have no shortage of advisers to turn to on and off the pitch - including experienced pace pair James Anderson and Stuart Broad, and coaches Trevor Bayliss and Paul Farbrace.
He added: "We have a very good group of players, and I'm looking forward to leading them out in the summer - building on Alastair's achievements and making the most of our talents in the years ahead.
"The senior guys in the changing room play a very influential role - and while there's a natural progression for me, it's a huge support to know that they are there to help and advise."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here