Pakistan defeated India 2-1 in the first of the six-match home-and-away hockey series in Chandigarh on Friday.

India were without captain Dilip Tirkey, who pulled out due to a hamstring injury.

Ignace Tirkey was thus appointed as the captain of the team, which missed star quality since Gagan Ajit Singh, Viren Rasquinha, Prabhjot Singh and Deepak Thakur were axed for the series and the forthcoming Commonwealth Games.

Scores: Pakistan 2 (Tariq Aziz 15th minute, Shakeel Abbasi 56th minute) beat India 1 (Tushar Khandekar 63rd minute).