Khel Ratna for Rohit Sharma, Ishant and Deepti to Receive Arjuna Awards

India vice-captain Rohit Sharma was named as one of five Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna awardees by the Sports Ministry on Friday. He becomes the fourth Indian cricketer to be conferred with this award after Sachin Tendulkar, MS Dhoni and Virat Kohli.

Indian cricketers Ishant Sharma and Deepti Sharma were named among the 27 Arjuna Awardees.

Rohit, who has been recognised for his brilliance with the bat in the India colours, however has his eyes firmly set on defending the IPL title with the Mumbai Indians in UAE. He is the most decorated IPL captain till now as Mumbai have won the trophy four times under his leadership.

Named the ICC ODI Cricketer of the Year for 2019, Rohit became the first player in the history of the game to score five ODI centuries in one edition of the World Cup.

He is also the first batsman to score four T20I centuries and is the first player to have twin centuries in his maiden appearance as a Test opener.

His teammate and Arjuna Awardee Ishant has played 97 Tests and 80 ODIs for India, grabbing over 400 international wickets.

In the women’s category, all-rounder Deepti Sharma was BCCI’s pick for the Arjuna for her consistent show in both ODIs and T20Is in the past three years.

Earlier in the year, Deepti had played an all-round role in the 2020 Women’s T20 World Cup and was instrumental in India beating ultimate champions Australia in the opening game of the competition with her knock of unbeaten 49 in the lower half of the innings. She finished with 116 runs in the tournament.