The Indian cricket team toured Pakistan in 2006 under the captaincy of Sourav Ganguly, who won the three-match Test series, 1-0, but then fell to 0–1 in the five-match ODI series. Coming back strongly, the series won 4-1. Though Yuvraj Singh has been selected as the man of the series, the most talked about young wicketkeeper batsman is Mahendra Singh Dhoni. Dhoni’s hair was very long at the time and he became very popular with his agile batting. The situation was that Pervez Musharraf, the president of Pakistan at the time, also praised Dhoni’s hair and gave him special advice.

The third match of the series took place at the Gaddafi Stadium in Lahore. Batting first, Pakistan scored 288 runs for the loss of eight wickets. In reply India scored 292 for five in 47.5 overs and won the match by five wickets. Dhoni scored 72 off 46 balls with 13 boundaries and was awarded the Man of the Match award. Sachin Tendulkar scored 95 and Yuvraj Singh notched 79. India won that match solely on Dhoni’s batting ability.

Pakistan’s then President Pervez Musharraf was also present during the post-match presentation. Musharraf praised Dhoni’s innings. Not only that, Musharraf praised Dhoni’s big hair and said, “I saw some such posters on the field during the match, in which people were advising him to cut his hair.” Then Musharraf said, ‘Dhoni, if you follow my opinion, don’t cut your hair. You look so good in long words.