The Prince of Wales played cricket on The Mall with England and India stars to celebrate Mumbai hosting his Earthshot Prize.
William brought traffic to a stop on the famous London thoroughfare for the game that saw England captain Joe Root and West Indies great Brian Lara play alongside grassroots cricketers.
Stars on the impromptu pitch
Also on the impromptu pitch were ex-India cricket captains Ajinkya Rahane and Sourav Ganguly.
The Earthshot Prize aims to discover, reward and finance ideas to help “repair” the planet and awards £1 million to winners in five categories, with Mumbai staging this year’s ceremony next month.
William’s batting and bowling
The future king first tried bowling at Lara, with slow medium deliveries pushed gently away, before taking the bat from the former West Indies captain, who holds the record for the highest first class cricket score of 501 not out.
William swung and missed at a number of deliveries from Harry Brook, England’s white ball captain, and Ganguly before connecting with one ball and sending it over the heads of players from the internet sensation Backyard Cricket, which promotes the sport at the grassroots level.
Lara’s praise
Lara praised the prince and said he would be in his starting 11, adding: “Well, I think he underrates himself first of all because you know he’s a big football fan, as we all know.
“I think his bowling needs a lot of work, but his batting across the line, I think he’d just be my sort of number six or number seven batter, the guy that comes in at the end, and if he hits a couple of boundaries, he hits a couple of boundaries.”
