On Wednesday, October 27, 2021, it was announced that Indian cricketer Mithali Raj was amongst the 11 athletes who will be receiving the country's highest sporting honor, the Major Dhyanchand Khel Ratna award.

Mithali Raj had made her India debut in 1999 and since then has become a true icon of the sport and a great role model for other girls to take up cricket as a profession. She has played 14 Tests, 220 ODIs, and 89 T20Is for India making 699, 7391, and 2364 runs respectively.

Mithali has one Test century, 7 ODI centuries and 59 half-centuries, and 17 T20I fifties to her name. She also captained the Indian team to the finals of the Women’s World Cup twice in 2005 and 2017.

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Sachin Tendulkar, MS Dhoni, Virat Kohli, and Rohit Sharma are the men’s cricketers who have previously won this distinguished award. However, Mithali Raj becomes the first female cricketer to get this honor.

On the other hand, opener Shikhar Dhawan will be receiving the prestigious Arjuna Award. Dhawan had made his India ODI debut in 2010, T20I debut in 2011, and Test debut in 2013, which he marked with brutal innings of 187 against Australia.

Since then, he has 2315 runs in 34 Tests with 7 centuries, best of 190, 6105 runs in 145 ODIs with 17 centuries, best of 143, and 1759 runs in 68 T20Is with 11 fifties and best of 92.

There were a total of 35 athletes who will receive the Arjuna Award this year.

(PTI inputs)