Indian opener Shikhar Dhawan on Saturday (November 13) received the Arjuna Award from the President of India Ram Nath Kovind while veteran women’s cricketer Mithali Raj was conferred with the prestigious Major Dhyan Chand Khel Ratna Award.
Apart from Dhawan, numerous Indian athletes were awarded the Arjuna Award which includes members of the Indian Hockey Team which won the Bronze medal at the Tokyo Olympics earlier this year.
Other than Mithali, 12 athletes were bestowed with the Khel Ratna Award by the honourable President and Olympic Gold Medalist Neeraj Chopra was one of them.
Shikhar Dhawan has been one of the key performers for India, especially in white-ball cricket in the last decade. He has represented the country in 34 Tests, 145 ODIs, and 67 T20Is so far, amassing over 9000 runs across formats. The southpaw was the Player-of-the-Tournament in India’s 2013 Champions Trophy triumph.
On other hand, Mithali Raj has played an instrumental role in the recognition of women’s cricket in India. She has inspired the likes of Smriti Mandhana, Harmanpreet Kaur, Shafali Verma, among others to take up cricket.
Mithali has represented India in 12 Tests, 220 ODIs, and 89 T20Is so far, scoring a combined 10,454 runs with eight centuries and 80 half-centuries.
