Rising star Tom Grambusch’s penalty corner reduced the deficit ahead of the final quarter and Germany’s blushes were saved three minutes from time thanks to Jonas Gomoll’s expertly taken penalty stroke, awarded after an initial shot was blocked on the goal-line.

India defender Raghunath Vokkaliga opened the scoring after just seven minutes by firing a ferocious penalty corner into the net. 

Grambusch, 20, restored parity with a penalty corner goal of his own four minutes from half-time, but India moved back into the lead almost immediately when Sunil Sowmarpet burst down the right before setting up the perfectly-positioned Mandeep Singh to touch home. 

The Asian champions increased their advantage to 3-1 shortly after the break when Harmanpreet Singh fired home a penalty corner, but they were unable to hold off the fightback from the London 2012 Olympic gold medallists.

"We had our opportunities and we could have finished the match earlier, but we missed some really good chances in the last quarter," said Raghunath.

"It’s okay - a draw is a good thing against Germany, but we want to do even better going forward."

Germany’s Oskar Deecke added: "It was a good start against a good team, and we fought back well I think.

"It was a fair result, but we want to come back stronger for tomorrow’s match against Belgium."

Belgium began their campaign today with a surprise 2-0 defeat at the hands of South Korea, whose goalscorers were Yang Jihun and Jung Manjae.

Ranked number five in the world, Belgium found themselves 1-0 down at half-time courtesy of Yang’s penalty corner strike.

A third-quarter effort from Jung completed the scoring and ensured a winning start for the ninth-ranked South Koreans.

Hosts Great Britain claimed a point against reigning world champions Australia In the last game of the day, holding their top-ranked opponents to a 0-0 draw.

As well as Germany’s meeting with Belgium, tomorrow’s action also sees India face Britain and Australia go up against South Korea.

The first and second-place finishers in the six-team round-robin group will contest the final on June 17.