India`s tour of Pakistan in 2006 is best remembered for the rising of a number of present day star Indian cricketers like Irfan Pathan and Mahendra Singh Dhoni. The Indian people also remember the tour for one of the team`s most miserable defeats on Pakistani soil in the third Test and a glorious performance of the Indian side to win 4 ODI matches, consecutively in the ODI series. The tour was full of excitement and boringness all at the same time and that is the main reason why the tour is considered as one of the memorable overseas tours of India.

India and Pakistan started the Test series in a dull and boring manner, as both the first two Test matches resulted in a draw. The matches were played on batting peaches and as a result, the batsmen of both the India and Pakistan team batted very well in those two matches. However, the showering of runs did not help any of the teams to get a result from the Test matches and that made the third Test, as the decisive one for the series. The Indian team, captained by Rahul Dravid, got a dream start in the match with the help of the promising pace bowler, Irfan Pathan, as he achieved a rare feat of getting a Hat trick in the very first over of a Test match. With this fiery bowling of Pathan, Pakistan soon got into a disastrous position of 39-6 in their first innings, however, the Indians failed to capitalize on the situation and Pakistan gradually made a come back in the match.

The Pakistan team came back into the match wonderfully with the help of a wonderful century by their wicket keeper, Kamran Akmal and scored 245 runs in their first innings. In reply to the medium score of Pakistan in the first innings, the Indian team failed to bats well and got out to even a lower score of 238 runs in their first innings. The Pakistani batsmen did well to avoid repeating the mistakes that they committed in the first innings and this time, they got a huge total of 599 runs, as all their top order batsmen got good runs. Requiring a good 368 runs to win the Test, the Indian batsmen could not apply themselves well on the crease and got all out well short of their target. As India got all out for only 265 runs, Pakistan won the Test by a huge margin of 103 runs and thus sealed the Test series 1-0.

However, it was a totally different story for the Indians in the ODI series, as they showed some extraordinary performance to win the five-match series 4-1, in spite of losing the first match. Pakistan started the series in a positive note by winning the first match by 7 runs, in Duckworth-Lewis method. India made a good come back in the second ODI and won the match convincingly by 7 wickets. After winning the second ODI, the Indian team never looked back and went on to win the rest of the three ODIs in great style and thus completed winning the ODI series by 4-1. India won the third ODI by 5 wickets, the fourth ODI again by 5 wickets and won the fifth and final ODI by a huge margin of 8 wickets, thanks to a great partnership of 146 runs by Yuvraj Singh and MS Dhoni. It was really one of the best ODI series India has ever played and though they lost the Test series, India`s tour of Pakistan in 2006, is still considered as one of the successful overseas tours for India.