Indian cricket team's vice-captain and opening batsman Rohit Sharma is among the 5 athletes who will be accoladed with India's highest sporting honor -- the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna Award for 2020.
Names of Asian Games gold medalist Vinesh Phogat, table tennis champion Manika Batra, India hockey women's captain Rani Rampal and Paralympic gold medalist Mariappan Thangavelu have also been added on the list to get the Khel Ratna Award.
The decision comes two days after the National Sports Awards selection committee's meeting held for deciding the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna, Arjuna and other national sports awards. The committee, which includes Virender Sehwag and Sardar Singh, met at Sports Authority of India headquarters in New Delhi.
Rohit Sharma is only the 4th cricketer after Sachin Tendulkar, MS Dhoni and Virat Kohli to be conferred with Khel Ratna Award. Tendulkar was the first Indian cricketer to bag the Khel Ratna Award in 1998. Dhoni received the sporting honor after leading India to the T20 World Cup in 2007 while Virat Kohli won the award along with weightlifter Mirabai Chanu in 2018.
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Vinesh Phogat became the first woman wrestler to win an Asian Games gold medal in 2018 while star paddler Manika Batra had a remarkable year in 2018 wherein she won the Commonwealth Games gold medal and Asian Games bronze in women's singles. Paddler Manika had a successful 2018 and won CWG gold and Asian Games bronze.
Mariyappan got the nod for his gold medal in the 2016 Rio Paralympics, in T42 high jump.
Rani was a late inclusion and became only the third hockey player and first female hockey player to win the award.