India's star batsman Rohit Sharma, wrestler Vinesh Phogat, 2016 Rio Paralympics gold medallist Mariyappan Thangavelu, table tennis sensation Manika Batra and Indian women's hockey captain Rani Rampal have been recommended for this year's Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna Award. The Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna is India's highest sporting honor and sources told IANS that the National Award Committee met in New Delhi on Tuesday and named the five athletes for the prestigious award.
If Rohit Sharma wins, he will become the fourth cricketer to have won it in history. Besides excelling in 2019-20 and opening for India in all formats, Rohit Sharma also led Mumbai Indians to their fourth Indian Premier League (IPL) win in 2019. Cricketing legend Sachin Tendulkar was the first to receive this honor in 1998, followed by MS Dhoni; for his triumph in the 2007 T20 world cup, followed by Virat Kohli in 2018.
Vinesh Phogat became the first Indian woman to win a gold medal at the Asian games 2018. She hails from a family of esteemed wrestlers with her sisters Geeta Phogat and Babita Kumari also being commonwealth games medalists. Vinesh Phogat was also the first Indian woman to win a gold medal in the Commonwealth Games.
He has sealed the qualification to the Tokyo Olympics with her bronze medal win at the 2019 wrestling World Championships and is one of the biggest medal hopes for the country going into the Games which have been postponed to next year due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
India's premier table tennis player Manika Batra has also been nominated for the award. She is well known for her double gold medals in the 2018 Gold Coast Commonwealth Games and also her triple gold medals in the 2016 South-Asian Games. She was also the first Indian woman to break into the top-50 rankings in the world.
Mariyappan Thangavelu created a sensation when he became the first Indian to win a paralympic gold medal since 2004. He represented India in the 'High Jump' event in the 2016 Paralympics held in Rio de Janeiro. In November 2019, he cleared a distance of 1.80 m (5 ft 11 inches) in the Men's High Jump event at the World Para Athletics Championships to bag the Bronze medal.
Indian women's hockey captain Rani Rampal meanwhile, spearheaded her team's qualification campaign for Tokyo 2020 late last year.
The Khel Ratna in 2019 was won by Paralympian Deepa Malik and wrestler Bajrang Punia.