Padma Awards: Mahendra Singh Dhoni Among Luminaries To Receive Prestigious Recognition

Former India cricket captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni was on Tuesday conferred with the country's third-highest civilian award, Padma Bhushan. Eighty-five people, who have been named as winners of the country's highest civilian honours, received them from President Ram Nath Kovind. Besides Dhoni, ace cueist Pankaj Advani was also conferred with Padma Bhushan award. Weightlifter Saikhom Mirabai Chanu and former Asian Games gold medallist tennis player Somdev Devvarman were conferred with the Padma Shri award.

Dhoni has been the recipient of many awards, including the ICC ODI Player of the Year award in 2008 and 2009 (the first player to win the award twice), the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna Award in 2007 and the Padma Shri, India's fourth highest civilian honour, in 2009.

Considered as the country's most successful cricket captain, Dhoni led India to two World Cup triumphs -- in the inaugural ICC World Twenty20 held in South Africa in September 2007 and the 2011 ICC ODI World Cup. India also won ICC Champions Trophy under him.

It was under his captaincy that India climbed to No. 1 in the ICC Test Rankings in December 2009.

India's badminton star player Kidambi Srikanth got Padma Shri award. At 25, Srikanth is the second youngest sportsperson in India to have got the Padma Shri. Earlier, PV Sindhu got it at the age of 19.

Srikanth, an Arjuna awardee, was the first male badminton player to win gold at the 2015 Swiss Open Grand Prix Gold.