William joins cricket stars on The Mall to mark Mumbai hosting Earthshot Prize

The Prince of Wales played cricket on The Mall with England and India stars to celebrate Mumbai hosting his Earthshot Prize.Read MoreWilliam 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.The Prince of Wales talks to Brian Lara at a special Earthshot Prize event on The Mall in London (Aaron Chown/PA)PA WireAlso 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.The Prince of Wales tried his hand at batting (Aaron Chown/PA)PA WireThe 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.Former India captain Sourav Ganguly was among those attending the event ahead of the Earthshot Prize Summit and Awards Night in Mumbai in November (Aaron Chown/PA)PA WireLara 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.”