The Board of Control for Cricket in India has decided to send the names of ODI women's cricket team captain Mithali Raj and Ravichandran Ashwin for the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna Award. While the names of KL Rahul, Jasprit Bumrah and Shikhar Dhawan have been nominated for the Arjuna Award.
Speaking to a news agency, a BCCI source said, "After a very long discussion, we have decided to send the names of Ravichandran Ashwin and women's cricket team captain Mithali Raj for the Khel Ratna Award. We have included Dhawan's name again and have recommended KL Rahul and Jasprit Bumrah for the Arjuna Award.
In a first, five athletes received the Khel Ratna Award last year, these athletes were Manika Batra, Rani Rampal, Mariyappan Phangavelu, Vinesh Phogat and Rohit Sharma.
Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna, the highest award of sports, has been received by only 4 cricketers so far. Sachin Tendulkar had first received this award in 1997. Mahendra Singh Dhoni was awarded the Khel Ratna in 2007 and Virat Kohli in 2018. Last year in 2020, Rohit Sharma became the fourth cricketer to receive this award.