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Positives for Pak, negatives for India
Pak return home having taken what they say could be a step towards excellence. India are left pondering their future.
Before Pakistan's tour of India started in February, the visitors were staggering from one defeat to another and the hosts were looking to soar to greater heights.
When play ended on Sunday after three Tests and six one-dayers, however, the turnaround could not have been more dramatic.
Pakistan returned home having taken what they say could be their first steps towards excellence. India, on the other hand, have been left pondering their future.
The three-Test series ended in a 1-1 draw, a moral victory for the visitors with India boasting a much stronger line-up on paper, and the One-Day Internationals 4-2 in Pakistan's favour after they lost the first two games.
The positives for Pakistan, on their first tour of India in over six years due to political tensions, have far outweighed their own expectations.
Captain Inzamam-ul-Haq, who celebrated his 100th Test with a century in the third match in Bangalore, cemented his position as one of Pakistan's greatest ever batsmen.
Coach Bob Woolmer, slammed by the local media after the side's 3-0 drubbing in Australia last year, emerged as the man who can bring method to Pakistan's individualistic madness.
Batsman Younis Khan, who scored 508 runs in the Test series, including a career-best 267 in Bangalore, justified his controversial selection as vice-captain and showed he could have all the ingredients needed to become a future skipper.
When asked why he was addressing the press conference instead if Inzamam before the third one-dayer at Jamshedpur, Younis joked: "I think they're grooming me."
Explosive opener Shahid Afridi, who struck a 26-ball 50 to set up Pakistan's victory in the Bangalore Test, and a 45-ball 100 in the fifth One-Day International, cemented his place as an invaluable member of the team with his destructive batting.
SOMETHING GREAT
Seamer Rana Naved-ul-Hasan claimed 15 wickets in the one-dayers to be named man of the series, and leg spinner Danish Kaneria grabbed 19 in the Test series, the two raising their hands in the absence of the often injured and temperamental paceman Shoaib Akhtar.
