Rohit Sharma is a deserving candidate according to Suresh Raina — to receive the prestigious — Khel Ratna Award, becoming the fourth cricketer to receive the award after Sachin Tendulkar, MS Dhoni and Virat Kohli. Raina, the former Indian middle-order batsman congratulated former teammate Rohit Sharma, who will receive the prestigious Khel Ratna Award on August 29.
The former cricketer Raina, who retired recently along with MS Dhoni on Independence Day (August 15, 2020) applauded world’s highest individual scorer ‘Hitman’ Rohit Sharma, who is also Indian team’s vice-captain for his deserving success beside wishing him well for future commitments.
The right-handed opening batsman in limited-overs cricket has the highest individual score of 264 registered against Sri Lanka in Kolkata besides being the only cricketer to score three double centuries in ODI.
Sharma is yet to cement his place in Test side due to extreme healthy competition between Mayank Agarwal, Shikhar Dhawan, Lokesh Rahul and Prithvi Shaw fighting for the opener’s slot. Rohit Sharma has batted in middle orders in Tests and got success even when he opened the batting in Tests.
Rohit Sharma’s Performance Has Been Extraordinary
Rohit Sharma has featured in 32 tests only where he accumulated 2141 runs averaging 46.54 besides scoring 6 centuries. But he has scored 9115 ODI runs averaging 49.27 in 224 ODIs besides having 29 centuries to his name. He has also featured in 107 T20Is where he has accumulated 2713 runs averaging 31.90. He also bowls right-arm off break and has taken 2 Test,8 ODI and 1 T20I wicket.
Congratulations brother @ImRo45, you truely deserve this.
You have made India proud so many times. Here's to many more milestones! ✌️??— Suresh Raina?? (@ImRaina) August 22, 2020
Rohit Sharma has scored 39 centuries in international cricket including 6 test,29 one-day and 4 T20I centuries and captains Mumbai Indians in IPL. The 33-year-old were in Deccan Chargers team in IPL from 2008 to 2010 before turning out for Mumbai Indians since 2011 onwards.
The 33-year-old Suresh Raina had played last played for the Indian team in 2018 but was expecting a call-up soon but decided to retire from international cricket with former skipper MS Dhoni after featuring in 18 Tests, 226 ODIs and 78 T20Is.
Minutes after MS Dhoni announced his plan to retire from international cricket, Suresh Raina also announced his retirement but both of them will play in the upcoming IPL 2020.
Rohit Sharma Becomes 4th Cricketer To Win The Award
The right-handed opening batsman will be the fourth cricketer to win this award. The other three cricketers who have won this prestigious award are Sachin Tendulkar who also received Bharat Ratna-India’s highest award for his immense contributions, MS Dhoni who had led India to T20I and ODI World Cup wins and Virat Kohli who is the current skipper of the Indian team and is the top-ranked ODI batsman since October 2017.
Besides Rohit Sharma, the other awardees are Mariyappan T. (Para-Athletics), Manika Batra (Table Tennis), Vinesh Phogat (Wrestling) and Rani Rampal (Hockey) all of whom will be conferred with the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna Award on 29th August 2020.
Ishant Sharma, who is on the verge of picking up 300 Test wickets and all-rounder Deepti Sharma who plays a vital part in limited-overs women Indian team will receive Arjuna Award this year.
National Sports Awards include the majestic Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna award besides the Arjuna award for deserving sportsmen and women while the Dronacharya award is for outstanding coaches and the Dhyan Chand award for lifetime achievement in sports are conferred on athletes every year by the President of India at the Rashtrapati Bhavan premises on August 29, the National Sports Day.
The event will be virtually held this time around due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic which has resulted in strict measures across India especially lock-downs as President Ram Nath Kovind will announce the names online.