Rohit Sharma awarded Khel Ratna; Ishant, Deepti get Arjuna Award

India’s vice-captain in limited-overs cricket and opening batsman Rohit Sharma has been awarded the country’s highest sporting honour. Sharma is one among the four athletes to receive the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna Award. Asian Games gold medalist Vinesh Phogat, table tennis champion Manika Batra and Paralympic gold medalist Mariappan Thangavelu are the other three. Amongst cricketers, Ishant Sharma and Deepti Sharma have been awarded the Arjuna Award this year.

Glorious Rohit

Sharma now becomes only the fourth Indian cricketer to win the most prestigious sporting award in India. Sachin Tendulkar (1997-98), MS Dhoni (2007) and Virat Kohli (2018) were the first three.

Sharma finished as the leading run-getter for India in the 2019 World Cup where he ended up scoring 648 runs with five centuries. He claimed the record of scoring the most centuries in a single World Cup with his five tons.

In the calendar year of 2019, he scored most runs in ODIs worldwide. The ICC named him 2019’s ODI Cricketer of the Year for a brilliant run in the shorter format. In the same year, he became the first Indian male cricketer to feature in 100 T20Is. The opening batsman also struck three Test centuries against South Africa in one series.

Ishant and Deepti honoured with Arjuna Award

Pace bowler from Delhi, Ishant began his career with a bang in 2007 as he demonstrated his raw pace in Australia. The tall bowler has matured over the years and is India’s senior-most bowler in Test cricket. In 97 Tests, he has 297 scalps to his name. His wickets tally in international cricket stands at 412 wickets.

The 22-year old spin-allrounder from Uttar Pradesh, Deepti has made a name for herself with her feats in women’s international cricket. She has featured in more than 100 international matches for India and also holds the record for the highest individual score an Indian women’s cricketer in ODIs – 188 runs.