[Watch] "Har bande ka dil saaf hai" - Babar Azam gives passionate speech in Pakistan dressing room after reaching No. 1 ODI ranking
Pakistan captain Babar Azam praised his "pure-hearted" teammates after their 3-0 series win over Afghanistan that took them to the top of the ICC men's rankings in ODIs in a passionate dressing room speech on Saturday.
It wasn't easy for Pakistan, who were the clear favorites before the series started. Afghanistan had a chance to win each of the matches but failed to clinch key moments as Pakistan saw different players stand up to the challenges.
"We are the number one team today because of our hard work," Babar said to a round of applause from his teammates.
"Hard work, up and downs, emotions, we have seen it all in life but this team's unity didn't break. A lot has happened but we have come up because of our bonding. 'Har bande ka dil saaf hai'' (Every guy's heart is pure). No one is thinking like, 'He did this, why didn't I?'. Everyone is happy with everyone else's performance and this should stay like this."
He also talked about not pointing fingers and focussing on 'we' over 'I'.
"Our bowling will win us the match on some days, on others our batting will win it," Babar said.
"We won't say 'this department is doing this, that department isn't'. We'll only talk like a team. There will be no 'I' but only 'we'."
The skipper then thanked the reserve players in the squad and asked his team to focus on the Asia Cup and take the momentum forward.
"Just the start for operation World Cup" - Micky Arthur after Babar Azam's speech
The director of the men's team, Mickey Arthur, who was with the team in Sri Lanka, gave the team a specially made cake in the shape of number one and gave a short speech about "operation World Cup".
"There's a cake here with number one on it," Arthur said.
"This number one, boys, signifies all the hard work you've put in over a period of time to get to number one in the world. Never ever take this for granted, boys. Let's celebrate this number-one cake. This is just the start for Operation World Cup. Let's enjoy this. [It] doesn't happen often, just make sure this stays with us for a long time to come."
Pakistan will start their Asia Cup campaign against India on September 2.