Teams With Most ICC Test Championship Mace Wins (2003-2019)

The upcoming ICC World Test Championship final between India and New Zealand will be yet another opportunity for the Virat Kohli-led unit to maintain their dominance in Test cricket but also win the coveted Test mace for the 6th time in Indian cricket history.

Before the conceptualization of the ICC World Test Championship, the No.1 ranked team at the time of the cutoff period (April) used to be awarded the coveted mace and a cash prize of 1 million dollars.

Since its inception in 2003 up until 2019, the ICC Test mace has changed hands several times.

Here’s a look at the teams with the most number of ICC Test Championship maces between 2003-2019:

England – 1

The English cricket team under the leadership of Andrew Strauss was on a consistent upward trajectory ever since the former opening batsman took over the reins of the side and it eventually culminated in them reaching the numero-uno spot in the ICC Test rankings in 2011.

The modus operandi of England under Strauss was simple: Bury the opposition under a mountain of runs and then unleash the like of James Anderson, Stuart Broad, Graeme Swann to knock over the opponents’ batting unit.

Under Strauss, England scripted one of their greatest-ever triumphs in their modern history as they won the Ashes for the first time in Australia after over two decades. This happened in the winter of 2010/11 when a rampaging English team beat the Ricky Ponting-led Australians 3-1

And, so with the then No.1 ranked side, India visiting the English isles in the summer of 2011, the stage was set for a face-off between the top-two Test sides in the world.

However, an ill-fated injury to Zaheer Khan on the first morning of the opening Test, lack of any substitute, and an aging batting unit on a decline coupled with England being at the peak of their powers in all departments meant India were hammered 0-4 and they were eventually upstaged by the home team from the numero-uno Test ranking spot.

For the first time in history, England became the top-ranked Test team in the world and they were awarded the coveted mace by the ICC at the end of the calendar year.

However, as they say, regaining your top spot is tougher than achieving it and that is exactly what England experienced during the course of the next 12 months.

The Strauss-led unit was thumped 0-3 by Pakistan in the UAE, drew in Sri Lanka (1-1) before their reign at the top eventually came to an end during the 2012 English summer when they lost the Test series to the Graeme Smith-led South Africa.

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South Africa – 3

It is fair to say that following the end of domination by Australia in the late 2000s, it was South Africa, under the leadership of Graeme Smith, that was by far the best Team in the world due to their imperious away record.

Between 2007-2014, South Africa did not lose a single series away from home and their most significant achievements include consecutive Test series win on English and Australian soil in 2008 and 2012.

South Africa claimed the numero-uno spot in the ICC Test rankings for the first time in their history by beating England 2-0 and they further established their authority by beating the Aussies Down Under 1-0 before smashing Pakistan 3-0 on home soil.

The 2013/14 season proved to be a mix-bag for South Africa as they managed to just about keep Pakistan to parity in the UAE (1-1). They won against India at home (1-0) thanks to a Dale Steyn masterclass in the Durban Test.

However, their poor record against Australia in home Tests continued as they lost the three-match series against a rampaging Michael Clarke-led unit, which was fresh off their 5-0 mauling of their ‘old enemy’- England.

However, South Africa just about managed to retain the mace and they did the same the following year to make it three in a row as they beat Sri Lanka in Sri Lanka (1-0) before beating Zimbabwe in a one-off Test and a hopeless West Indies unit 2-0.

The Proteas eventually lost the ICC Test mace to Steve Smith’s Australia at the end of the 2015/16 season.

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India -5

India got their first taste of the ICC Test mace at the end of the 2009/10 season when the MS Dhoni-led unit upstaged the Aussies following a series of consistent performances during the course of the season.

India won their first Test series in New Zealand after 1967 when they beat the Dan Vettori-led unit by 1-0 in March 2009. They backed it up with a series win at home against Sri Lanka (2-0) to seal the No.1 spit before obliterating Bangladesh by the same margin.

A 1-1 draw against South Africa on home soil ensured that Team India held on to their No.1 spot to win their maiden mace.

India managed to regain the prize at the end of the next calendar year following the drawn series in Sri Lanka (1-1), South Africa (1-1), and home series triumphs against Australia (2-0) and New Zealand (1-0).

The dominance, however, came to an end in August 2011 following their 0-4 mauling at the hands of England.

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India regain Test dominance under Virat Kohli

Six years later, India once again regained the urn under the leadership of Virat Kohli. The Indian team’s rise to the top was built on series wins in Sri Lanka (2-1) in 2015, home series triumph against South Africa (3-0), and the mauling of the West Indies in the Caribbean (2-0) in 2016.

This was followed by sustained home dominance during the 2016/17 season where they beat New Zealand (3-0), England(4-0), Bangladesh (1-0) before overcoming the Aussies in a hard-fought series- 2-1.

Virat Kohli was handed over the coveted maze at the end of the series. The Indian team beat Sri Lanka (home/away- 3-0 & 1-0)  in 2017 and while they lost the first two Tests in South Africa in early 2018, they managed to win the last match in Jo’Burg to regain the mace.

The 2018/19 season proved to be a mixed one for Team India as they lost a hard-fought series in England (1-4) before scripting history by winning their maiden Test series in Australia during the winter.

Virat Kohli won the mace for the third consecutive year and the next two years would see yet another period of dominance by Team India. Barring the 0-2 series defeat in New Zealand in early 2020, India have won five of their last six series since the 2018/19 triumph in Austria which includes yet another heist Down Under under the leadership of Ajinkya Rahane.

India lost the No.1 spot for a few months during the 2020/21 season to Australia and New Zealand respectively, but they regained their numero uno spot thanks to consecutive triumphs in Australia (2-1) and then against England (3-1) on home soil.

However, with the inception of the ICC World Test Championship in 2019, the coveted mace wasn’t awarded in 2020 and 2021.

India finished as the No.1 team during the 2019-21 World Test Championship cycle and they will now lock horns with New Zealand to win their sixth mace.

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Australia – 8

No other team in the world has dominated the Test rankings like Australia and so, it shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone to see the Aussies at the numero-uno spot in this list.

Australia had established themselves as the world’s best team in the mid-90s when they became the first team to beat former champions West Indies in a Test series (home/away) after a gap of 15 years- 2-1 in 1995.

However, it was under the leadership of Steve Waugh in the early 2000s and then under Ricky Ponting that the Australians established their absolute dominance over world cricket.

Steve Waugh became the first captain to win the coveted mace in 2003 and following his retirement, Ricky Ponting followed suit by winning six consecutive maces.

Between 2001-2009, Australia won 65 out of the 94 Tests that they played, losing just 14. They won their first-ever series on Indian soil since the late 1960s in 2004 (2-1) and barring the drawn series on home soil against India in 2003/04 (1-1) and a shock defeat to England in the 2005 Ashes, they beat everyone both home and away.

However, following the retirements of the likes of Shane Warne, Glenn McGrath, Adam Gilchrist, Matthew Hayden, Damien Martyn between 2007-09, their stranglehold over the cricketing world weakened, and series defeats in India (0-2) and at home against South Africa (1-2) followed in 2008/09.

Australia eventually lost the mace to India in 2009/10.

They, however, regained the coveted mace in 2016 under the leadership of Steve Smith but they could not sustain the dominance and were once again toppled by India.

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Honorable mention: Pakistan

The Pakistan Cricket Team under the leadership of Misbah-ul-Haq won the ICC Test mace briefly in 2016. However, they couldn’t stay at the No.1 spot by the cut-off date for the price. Pakitan’s accession to the top was because of their consistent performances in 2015 and 2016 where they beat Sri Lanka (1-0), Bangladesh (1-0), and England (2-0). Pakistan then toured England in 2016 where they held the home side to a 2-2 draw; a result that helped them leapfrog India to the top of the ladder for two months between August 2016 and October 2016. However, a Test defeat to the West Indies in the UAE followed by a 0-3 mauling at the hands of Australia and India’s subsequent dominance on home soil meant that the Virat Kohli-led unit won the mace in April 2017.

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