Virat Kohli was nominated by the Board of Cricket for Cricket in India (BCCI) for the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna Award for 2016. Along with Kohli, his Team India colleague Ajinkya Rahane was nominated for the Arjuna Award. Only two cricketers in the past have won the Khel Ratna. The first one was Sachin Tendulkar in the year 1997-98, followed by India’s limited-overs skipper MS Dhoni in 2007. Kohli could become only the third cricketer to get this prestigious award. Kohli has been on a high of late, scoring runs across formats with ease and perhaps deserves this honour. He was also recently appointed India’s Test skipper after Dhoni had resigned.
He led India to a series win against Sri Lanka in the Island nation, which was something India had not achieved since 1996. He then put in excellent performances during the tour to Australia, followed by the Asia Cup T20 2016 and also the T20 World Cup 2016, where India crashed out at the semi-final stage. He is currently the top-ranked batsman in the shortest format and is also making giant strides in the other two formats as well.
Here’s the list of the Raji Gandhi Khel Ratna recepients:
Year
Winner
Sport
1991–92
Viswanathan Anand
Chess
1992–93
Geet Sethi
Billiards
1993–94
Homi Motivala
Yachting (team)
Pushpendra Kumar Garg
1994–95
Karnam Malleswari
Weightlifting
1995–96
Nameirakpam Kunjarani
Weightlifting
1996–97
Leander Paes
Tennis
1997–98
Sachin Tendulkar
Cricket
1998–99
Jyotirmoyee Sikdar
Athletics
1999–00
Dhanraj Pillay
Hockey
2000–01
Pullela Gopichand
Badminton
2001
Abhinav Bindra
Shooting
2002
Anjali Bhagwat (Vedpathak)
Shooting
KM Beenamol
Athletics
2003
Anju Bobby George
Athletics
2004
Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore
Shooting
2005
Pankaj Advani
Billiards, Snooker
2006
Manavjit Singh Sandhu
Shooting
2007
MS Dhoni
Cricket
2009
Sushil Kumar
Wrestling
Mary Kom
Boxing (women)
Vijender Singh
Boxing
2010
Saina Nehwal
Badminton
2011
Gagan Narang
Shooting
2012
Yogeshwar Dutt
Wrestling
Vijay Kumar
Shooting
2013
Ronjan Sodhi
Shooting
2015
Sania Mirza
Tennis
Kohli made his international debut against Sri Lanka in 2008 and has ever since been one of India’s most consistent performers. He also led India to the ICC Under-19 World Cup win in 2008. In his World Cup debut for the senior side in 2011, he slammed a century against Bangladesh and India went on to win the trophy on home soil and became the first nation to do so.
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