The 40-year-old retired from football last season, ending a 15-year stint as skipper of the Italian giants.
Defender Ranocchia joined Inter from Genoa in 2011 and has quickly gone on to cement himself as a first-team regular at San Siro.
And Zanetti believes that he has the leadership qualities to take on the position for coach Walter Mazzarri.
Zanetti told Sky Sport 24: "Andrea knows the value of the Nerazzurri (Inter) shirt and, in my opinion, he could be the right man when it comes to making this decision.
"He is always available and everyone listens to him.
"In my opinion he could do very well."
Zanetti, who stated how keen he was to take up a non-playing role at Inter, also offered his view on whether his famous number four shirt should be retired.
"People within the club are talking about this (the shirt retirement) and in the event that it happens it would be a great honour for me," he added.
"But I don't want to enforce anything."
