Indian cricket captain Virat Kohli and Weightlifting world champion Mirabai Chanu will be honoured with the prestigious Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna on September 25, the Sports Ministry announced on Thursday.
World’s highest-ranked batsman in both the Test and ODI formats, Kohli was in top form during the England Test series, where he amassed 593 runs in five matches that includes two centuries and two half-centuries.
The 29-year-old has so far scored 6147 runs in 71 Tests with 23 centuries and 9779 runs in 211 ODIs, which has 35 hundred. Kohli was earlier nominated for the honours in the last two years but was not considered with Olympic medallists PV Sindhu and Sakshi Malik receiving.
Mirabai Chanu has been nominated on the back of her historic gold at the World Weightlifting Championships in 2017. She had also bagged the gold in the Commonwealth Games at Gold Coast.
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Meanwhile, Javelin thrower Neeraj Chopra was along with 20 sportspersons selected for the Arjuna Award.
The nominees will be honoured by President Ram Nath Kovind at the Rashtrapati Bhawan.
It was, however, a disappointment for archery coach Jiwanjot Singh Teja, who was dropped from the list of Dronacharya award nominees for the one-year ban he served in 2015 due to indiscipline.
Teja was among five coaches named by the selection committee for Dronacharya award but it was later found out that Teja has been suspended for one year following an incident of indiscipline during the 2015 World University Games in Korea.
It was also announced that President Govind will present the Dronacharya and Dhyan Chand Awards on the same day.
The Final List of Awardees are:
Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna Award: Virat Kohli and Mirabai Chanu.
Arjuna Awards: Neeraj Chopra, Jinson Johnson and Hima Das (Athletics); N Sikki Reddy (Badminton); Satish Kumar (Boxing); Smriti Mandhana (Cricket); Shubhankar Sharma (Golf); Manpreet Singh, Savita (Hockey); Ravi Rathore (Polo); Rahi Sarnobat, Ankur Mittal, Shreyasi Singh (Shooting); Manika Batra, G Sathiyan (Table Tennis); Rohan Bopanna (Tennis); Sumit (Wrestling); Pooja Kadian (Wushu); Ankur Dhama (Para-Athletics); Manoj Sarkar (Para-Badminton).
Dronacharya Awards: C A Kuttappa (Boxing); Vijay Sharma (Weightlifting); A Srinivasa Rao (Table Tennis); Sukhdev Singh Pannu (Athletics); Clarence Lobo (Hockey, Lifetime); Tarak Sinha (Cricket, Lifetime); Jiwan Kumar Sharma (Judo, Lifetime); V R Beedu (Athletics, Lifetime).
Dhyan Chand Awards: Satyadev Prasad (Archery); Bharat Kumar Chetry (Hockey); Bobby Aloysius (Athletics); Chougale Dadu Dattatray (Wrestling).