India women’s team cricketer Mithali Raj will be conferred with the Major Dhyan Chand Khel Ratna award. The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) sent some names as recommendations earlier this year and Mithali was one of them.
“We had a detailed discussion and it was decided to send in the names of [Ravichandran] Ashwin and women’s Test and ODI skipper’s for the Khel Ratna. We are recommending Dhawan again for the Arjuna while we will also suggest the names of Rahul and Bumrah for the same," news agency ANI quoted a BCCI source as saying.
The Indian Women skipper, a right-handed batter has featured in 12 Tests, 220 ODIs and 89 T20Is. She has notched up over 600 runs in the longer format while has 7391 runs to her name in the ODIs at an average of over 51, which is the most for any woman cricketer in the history of ODI cricket.
Apart from this, India opener Shikhar Dhawan will be honoured with Arjuna Award. Dhawan has been one of the finest opening batsmen that the Indian team has ever seen. The left-hander played an important role in India’s successful campaign in the Champions Trophy back in 2013 under the captaincy of MS Dhoni.
Before Mithali, Indian men cricketers Sachin Tendulkar, MS Dhoni, Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma have been conferred the biggest sporting award in the nation.