The Board of Control for Cricket in India has decided to recommend women’s ODI and Test team captain Mithali Raj and men’s team senior off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin for Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna, the country’s highest sporting honour.
The Board has also put the names of Shikhar Dhawan, K. L. Rahul and Jasprit Bumrah in the list of Arjuna Award. However, no cricketer from the women’s team has been nominated for Arjuna.
Mithali Raj, who completed 22 years in international cricket last week, is the leading run-getter in ODIs with over 7000 runs.
Ravichandran Ashwin is one of the great of the spin department as he has taken 413 wickets in 79 Tests besides 150 and 42 scalps in ODIs and T20s. On the other hand, Dhawan has scored 5977 runs in 142 ODIs besides 2315 and 1673 Test and T20 runs, respectively.