The Board of Control in India (BCCI) Vice President Rajeev Shukla expressed a lot of joy after the Indian Men's and Women's team meeting with King Charles III. Shukla was particularly impressed with the King doing a lot of research on players about minute details. The King also won the hearts of the BCCI Vice President and a lot of fans after he inquired about pacer Akash Deep's sister's health, who is battling with colon cancer.
Charles met Shubman Gill and Harmanpreet Kaur's teams and their respective coaching staff members at St. James's Palace in London on Tuesday, July 15. Speaking to ANI, Shukla said:
"It was a very historic occasion that both our men's and women's teams were invited today by King Charles and met them very well in the Palace. Players are very happy because he asked for all personal details of each player. He asked Saikia ji (BCCI secretary Devajit Saikia) and me about whether Arun Jaitley is my friend, what happened to him, and when I told him that he had died, he asked me to pay condolences to his family. He also asked about Akash Deep's sister's illness."
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"He had found out so many details. He sounded like a gentleman, and it did not seem we were talking to the King of England. There is a lot of humility in him, and the team is very happy to meet him," he added.
King Charles III terms Mohammed Siraj's dismissal in third Test as unfortunate
Charles also spoke at length about the unfortunate Siraj dismissal in the third Lord's Test. The number 11 defended the ball, but unfortunately, the ball spun enough backwards to dislodge the bail, and hand England a 22-run win.
"Even he noticed this fact. If we had another regular batter on the field, then we could have won easily. Our team has proven that our experiment is well done (to send a young team), as part of which we have sent a new team, because we are looking forward to the future. The team has proven itself to be a fighter unit. We almost won here. We did well at Leeds. Our team is competing with England equally and will win the series as two matches are left," he added.
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Charles also spoke with Rishabh Pant, Shubman Gill, and Jasprit Bumrah. After meeting the men's team members, Charles proceeded to meet the women's team, where he interacted with quite a few players.
India's Test skipper shared his experience of speaking with Charles. "It was amazing. I think he was very kind and generous to be able to call us here, and it was a pleasure meeting the king, and we had some really good conversations."
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Harmanpreet shared her experience and told reporters, "Uh, it was a very nice experience. Uh, we came to England so many times, but this was our first time when we met him, and he was very friendly. He asked us, like, how the travel was and all, and, um, it was really nice to meet him."
