Published: May 04, 2016, 03:27 AM (IST)
Edited: May 04, 2016, 03:27 AM (IST)
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.
