The 2006 Indo-Pak series (known as the Airtel Trophy for sponsorship reasons) was the 8th series of bilateral field hockey matches between Pakistan and India.
The six match series was played over two legs on home and away basis with three matches hosted in each country from 17 February to 2006 to 26 February 2006. Pakistan won the series 3–1. Pakistan won their fourth consecutive and overall sixth series against India. This was the first time India did not lose the away leg of the series and remained unbeaten in Pakistan.
Background Prior to the start of the series Pakistan had won five out of seven bilateral series where as India won one and one was drawn. The two teams had met in December last year earlier in Chennai at the 2005 Champions Trophy with India winning 2–3. Both teams participated in a 4-Nations tournament in Netherlands month before that but did not face each other Pakistan won the tournament defeating Australia 4–3 in the final.
Venues MatchLocationVenueDate FirstChandigarh, India Sector 42 Hockey Stadium 17 February SecondChandigarh, IndiaSector 42 Hockey Stadium18 FebruaryThirdJalandhar, India Surjit Singh Stadium20 FebruaryFourthLahore, PakistanNational Hockey Stadium22 FebruaryFifthFaisalabad, Pakistan Faisalabad Hockey Stadium24 FebruarySixthRawalpindi, PakistanArmy Hockey Stadium26 February
Squads India announced its squad on 2 February 2006. India named a rather young squad leaving out many veteran players like Gagan Ajit Singh, Deepak Thakur, captain Dileep Tirkey, Viren Rasquinha and Prabhjot Singh. The Pakistan squad was announced on 8 February 2006. The team was announced by Chief Selector Akhtar Rasool after the two days trials in Islamabad. Muhmmad Saqlain was named as captain despite his ill disciplinary record recently. + India Pakistan Bharat Kumar Chetri Adrian D'Souza Kanwalpreet Singh Harpal Singh V. R. Raghunath V. S. Vinaya Vikram Pillay Ignace Tirkey (C) Prabodh Tirkey Sandeep Singh Rajpal Singh Deedar Singh Sardara Singh Tushar Khandker Tijbir Singh Arjun Halappa Adam Sinclair Shivendra Singh Hari Prasad Muhammad Saqlain (C) Salman Akbar Nasir Ahmed Zeeshan Ashraf Muhammad Imran Imran Warsi Imran Khan Dilawar Bhatti Adnan Maqsood Sajjad Anwar Rehan Butt Mudassar Ali Khan Shakeel Abbasi Tariq Aziz Shabbir Hussain Adnan Zakir Mudassar Khan Waqas Sharif Shabbir Khan Muhmmad ZubairCoach Rajinder Singh Jr.Coach Asif Bajwa
Results
Pakistan won the series 3–1.
+First legMatchDateScoreLocation117 FebruaryIndia 1–2 PakistanChandigarh218 FebruaryIndia 1–3 PakistanChandigarh320 FebruaryIndia 1–2 PakistanJalandhar +Second legMatchDateScoreLocation122 FebruaryPakistan 1–1 IndiaLahore224 FebruaryPakistan 1–2 IndiaFaisalabad326 FebruaryPakistan 3–3 IndiaRawalpindi
Matches
First leg Match 1 Match 2 Match 3
Second leg Match 1 Match 2 Match 3
Statistics +TeamPWDLGFGAGD Pakistan6321129 +3 India6123912 -3
Goalscorers There were 21 goals scored in 6 matches for an average of 3.5 goals per match.
References