Indian captain Virat Kohli congratulated his deputy Rohit Sharma, senior fast bowler Ishant Sharma and women's team all-rounder Deepti Sharma after they were confirmed on Friday (August 21) as recipients of Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna, and Arjuna Awards respectively.

Kohli wrote in his tweet, "Congratulations @ImIshant and @ImRo45 for your respective Arjuna and Khel Ratna Awards and to @Deepti_Sharma06 for her Arjuna Award as well. Big congratulations to all the other winners across different sports. Proud moment to remember for each sportsperson."

Khel Ratna is the highest sporting honor of the country, and Rohit is only the fourth cricketer after Virat Kohli himself, MS Dhoni and Sachin Tendulkar to get the award. Rohit has become one of the greats of white-ball cricket since being asked to open by Dhoni in the 2013 ICC Champions Trophy. He scored five hundreds in the 2019 World Cup and has three double hundreds in the one-day format.

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Ishant Sharma has been the spearhead of the pace attack in Test cricket for Team India over the last few years and is currently enjoying the best phase of his career. He is only three wickets away from the magical 300-wicket milestone in the longest format.

Deepti Sharma has contributed with bat and ball for the Indian women's team and is now one of the most dependable performers for the team in white-ball cricket.

Kohli and Rohit are currently in UAE where they will lead Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) and Mumbai Indians (MI) in the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2020 before heading with the Indian cricket team for the all-format tour of Australia.