Virat Kohli congratulates Rohit Sharma, Ishant Sharma and Deepti Sharma for their sports honours

Rohit Sharma became the fourth cricketer to be awarded the ‘Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna Award’. He along with four other sportspersons from the country were awarded the highest sporting honour of the nation. The Indian vice-captain in white-ball cricket has been in great touch since the past few years but his performance in 2019 was extraordinary. The Mumbai batsman scored 5 centuries in the 2019 World Cup and became the first batsman to do so.

Ishant Sharma and Deepti Sharma were the two cricketers to bag Arjuna Award for their phenomenal performances last year. Ishant Sharma has been a mainstay and the leader of the Indian pace attack in Test cricket since the retirement of Zaheer Khan. Deepti, the all-rounder of Indian women’s team, is also a senior member of the team and has been performing quite well for the last few years.

The ceremony will be conducted virtually on August 29th

The other four sportspersons to win the Khel Ratna award are Asian Games gold medalist Vinesh Phogat, table tennis champion Manika Batra, India hockey women’s captain Rani Rampal, and Paralympic gold medalist Mariappan Thangavelu. This is the first time five players have won the Khel Ratna award and 27 players have won the Arjuna Award. The ceremony will be conducted virtually with President Ramnath Kovind giving away the awards on August 29.

The Indian star cricketers will be seen playing IPL from 19th September and the next assignment for the Indian Cricket team will be in December when the national team tours Australia for a bilateral series.

Virat Kohli, captain of the Indian cricket team, has congratulated the three cricketers on social media. The number one batsman in ICC ODI rankings took to Twitter to congratulate them. Notably, the last cricketer to receive the ‘Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna Award’ was Kohli himself.

“Congratulations @ImIshant and @ImRo45 for your respective Arjuna and Khel Ratna Awards Clapping hands sign and to @Deepti_Sharma06 for her Arjuna Award as well. Big congratulations to all the other winners across different sports. A proud moment to remember for each sportsperson.” said Kohli.

Congratulations @ImIshant and @ImRo45 for your respective Arjuna and Khel Ratna Awards 👏 and to @Deepti_Sharma06 for her Arjuna Award as well. 💪 Big congratulations to all the other winners across different sports. Proud moment to remember for each sportsperson.

— Virat Kohli (@imVkohli) August 22, 2020