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‘Extremely Honoured and Humbled’ – Rohit Sharma on Khel Ratna Award Nomination

Should Rohit win the award, he will become only the fourth cricketer after Sachin Tendulkar, MS Dhoni and Virat Kohli to do so.

India opener Rohit Sharma has expressed his gratitude at having been nominated for the Rajiv Khel Ratna Award, the country’s highest sporting honour, by the BCCI.

The India limited-overs vice-captain has been churning out excellent performances with 2019 being particularly special during which he struck record-breaking five centuries during the ODI world cup. Besides that, he was promoted to the opener’s slot in Test cricket where also he found success, scoring a maiden double-century.

Overall, he scored 556 runs at 92.66 in Tests and 1657 runs in ODIs at 57.30 in ODIs last year.

“Extremely honoured and humbled to be nominated by the BCCI for the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna Award which is the highest sporting honour in India. I am thankful to BCCI, my teammates, support staff, fans of the game and my family for sticking by,” Rohit said in a video uploaded by the Bcci.tv.

Should Rohit win the award, he will become only the fourth cricketer after Sachin Tendulkar, MS Dhoni and Virat Kohli to do so.

Besides Rohit, BCCI also nominated fast bowler Ishant Sharma, opening batsman Shikhar Dhawan and India women allrounder Deepti Sharma for the Arjuna Award as well.

“Rohit Sharma has set new benchmarks as a batsman and achieved scores people thought were not possible in the shorter formats of the game. We feel he is worthy of getting the prestigious Khel Ratna Award for his commitment, conduct, consistency and his leadership skills,” BCCI president Sourav Ganguly had said in a press release.

“Ishant Sharma is the most senior member of the Test squad and his contribution has been vital in Indian team’s long run as the No. 1 Test side. Fast bowlers are prone to injuries and Ishant has had a fair share of them but he has fought hard to be back on the park every time. Shikhar has been consistently scoring at the top and his performances in the ICC events have been significant. Deepti is a genuine allrounder and her contribution to the team has been vital,” he added.

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