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Virat Kohli to join Sachin Tendulkar, MS Dhoni?

Virat Kohli has the chance of being just the third cricketer to win the prestigious Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna award.

Virat Kohli is well on course to break many more records in his career © AFP
Virat Kohli is well on course to break many more records in his career © AFP

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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