England fell behind to Neha Goyal's 25th minute goal but rallied and earned a point thanks to Lily Owsley's equaliser in the Pool B encounter at the Lee Valley Hockey and Tennis Centre on the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park.

In the other match in the group, Ireland stunned the United States with a surprise 3-1 win, while Germany won the opening game of the tournament as they defeated South Africa by the same scoreline.

Commonwealth Games silver medallists Australia also won their first match as they narrowly beat Japan 3-2.

England, who started as favourites against an Indian team which has never finished higher than fourth at the World Cup, made a bright start but found themselves a goal down when Goyal gave India a shock lead.

The home side, whose squad includes several members of Britain's Olympic gold medal-winning team at RIo 2016, were the dominant side but had to wait until the 54th minute to level.

The all-important equaliser came thanks to Lily Owlsley, who returned to the side after recovering from an injury which kept her out of this year's Commonwealth Games in Gold Coast, as she reacted quickest from a penalty corner.

England piled on the pressure and were unfortunate not to find a winner as India's defence held firm.

"I need to get away from the result and think about the performance, particularly in the second half where there was just one team in it," head coach Danny Kerry told BBC Sport.

"It was just whether we could get the luck to go our way.

"I'm proud of how we did after the break where we utterly dominated."