Dhoni receives ICC Test Championship mace

New Delhi, Dec 28 (ANI): Indian cricket captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni was awarded the Test Championship mace from International Cricket Council (ICC) Chief Executive, Haroon Lorgat, after leading his team to the pinnacle of ICC Test rankings.

India jumped from third in the rankings to displace South Africa at the top by clinching a 2-0 series victory over Sri Lanka.

Australia and South Africa have previously been the number one since the inception of the rankings in 2001.

"Well, it's proud moment as I said. It's not something that you achieve in 15 days' time, or couple of months' time. You have to play consistently well over a period of time to be the number one ranked team in the world. So that's why I feel it's a very special achievement for team India," Dhoni told reporters here on Sunday.

He also expressed confidence that his team would be able to hold on to the number one position for long and would be playing four test matches next year.

"I think there are quite a few other test matches that are getting proposed so I don't think we'll be short of test matches. Of course, at the same time, we have to see what time we have got, because FTPs (Future Tours Programme) are scheduled well in advance, and if you don't have a tournament, and if you try to fix a test series in between two series, it gets really tough on players so we should abide by whatever has been fixed. But at the same time, I think we have quite a few test matches coming. I am also not 100 percent sure about it but I think we'll play more than four," he said.

The Indian team is scheduled to play only two Tests -- against Bangladesh in January - over the next 11 months. A proposal is now being considered to include two Tests during South Africa's tour of the country in February. (ANI)