Pakistan skipper Babar Azam heaped praise on his teammates after becoming the newly ranked No.1 team in the ODI cricket following their emphatic win over Afghanistan in a three-match series. The Men in Green were too good against Afghanistan on Saturday, to win the series 3-0 to leapfrog Australia to get the top spot in the ODI cricket ranking.
Despite resting the key players Haris Rauf, Iftikhar Ahmed, and Naseem Shah for the final ODI game against Afghanistan. Babar Azam-led side performed exceedingly well to whitewash the Afghan side by 59 runs to secure a clinical win against Afghanistan to get themselves well prepared going into the Asia Cup 2023.
According to Crex, Babar Azam expressed his gratitude to be ranked the NO.1 ODI side in the game and lauded his teammates for working hard to bring their side to this position in International cricket and feels that this series has helped them to prepare well for the continental event as Afghanistan has got one of the best spin-bowling units in the World.
“Thank you again! Yeah, now, we are the number one ranked ODI side. Credits go to the boys, all of them have been doing the hard yards.
“Absolutely, Afghanistan have one of the best spin-bowling attacks in the world. This series should help us in the Asia Cup,” Babar Azam said.
Earlier during the New Zealand series, Babar Azam-led team bettered the number-three ranking they had achieved in January 2007 to become the NO.1 for the first time in the history of the game. The Men in Green has been in fantastic form in ODI cricket as they produced some scintillating performances in recent times.
We Had A Good Bench Strengths And A Great Bunch Of Players – Babar Azam
Speaking about the final game, Babar Azam said that the conditions were pretty difficult to bat on the first innings, as Pakistan had a slow start in the game before taking on the bowlers in the final overs and added that he is happy with the performance of players, who had come in the playing 11 for the final ODI game.
“The conditions were not easy for the batting in the first innings. Rizwan and myself tried to rebuild with a cautious approach and decided to take the innings deep,”
“We had a good bench strengths and a great bunch of players. We tried different combinations. In a couple of days, we have our first match in the Asia Cup. So need to take this momentum to it,” Babar Azam concluded.
India and Pakistan will walk in one of the favorites to win the continental event starting on August 30. Babar Azam-led side will be riding high on confidence after a three-match series win over Afghanistan with them doing exceedingly well in all three departments, capitalizing on the crucial moments of the game.