Historically, the Indian cricket team has travelled poorly. For the longest time, the first aim of the Indian cricket team was to see if they could avoid defeat. Every draw they could manage abroad was something very much like a victory. If one takes away Wadekar's 1971 team, which made the whole of India dream - briefly - of world domination, the tours abroad had followed a pattern where the team lost the first Test and hence the initiative, and then went on to lose more Tests, or at least the series!

With Sourav Ganguly coming in as captain, there was a perceptible difference in the attitude of the team, and the desire to win abroad was evident. And there was the expectation that things would change.

The tour to Pakistan in 2004 went a long way in taking this forward.

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