The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) to recommend Indian women’s limited-overs skipper Mithali Raj and Indian off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin for Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna Award which is the country’s highest sporting honour. For Arjuna Award, the BCCI is sending the names of Indian opener Shikhar Dhawan who was ignored last year, KL Rahul and yorker specialist Jasprit Bumrah.
A BCCI official informed PTI on Wednesday, “No women cricketer has been nominated for Arjuna. Mithali’s name has been recommended for Khel Ratna Award.” Mithali Raj is picked by the Sports Ministry-appointed panel in an Olympic year. The Indian women’s limited-overs skipper completed 22 years in international cricket last week. She is also the leading run-scorer in ODIs with more than 7000 runs.
On the other side, Ravichandran Ashwin had already been an Arjuna Awardee like Mithali and has also been a consistent performer for India in Test cricket. The premium spinner has taken 413 wickets in 79 Tests besides 150 in ODIs and 42 wickets in T20Is though he doesn’t play for India in the limited-overs games. As the frontrunner for Arjuna Award, Shikhar Dhawan will lead India in the upcoming limited-overs series in Sri Lanka. He has scored 5977 runs in 142 ODIs besides 2315 in Tests and 1673 in T20Is respectively.
