Indian men’s and women’s cricket teams met King Charles III at St James’s Palace in London on Tuesday, where the monarch displayed remarkable knowledge about the players’ personal lives and their recent match performances.
BCCI Vice-President Rajeev Shukla, who was also present at the get-together, presented a book on the partition of India in 1947 to King Charles.
Shukla expressed delight, revealing that Charles also paid tribute to the late Arun Jaitley and his family. Charles, at the same time, looked curious about Akashdeep’s sister’s illness.
Regarding cricket, he also noticed that if India had a regular batsman on the pitch on the fifth day, they would have been able to win the match.
In that meeting, the Indian team also met British Actor Idris Elba before their royal encounter.
After the meeting, the Indian skipper Shubman Gill said, “ It was amazing to meet King Charles III, and he was very kind and generous to call us. We had some excellent conversations.” Gill added, “King Charles III told us the way our last batsman got out in the previous Test match was quite unfortunate, the ball rolling on the stamp.”
Harmanpreet Kaur also shared her experience of meeting the king: “It was a very nice experience. We came to England so many times, but this was our first time that we could meet the King.” The Indian women’s team won the T-20 series 3-2. Now they are
preparing for the upcoming three-match ODI series starting in Southampton.
