Rohit Sharma was nominated for the prestigious Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna Award 2020 by the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) announced on Saturday. "Honoured and humbled" by the news, India's limited-overs vice-captain thanked the cricket board, his teammates, support staff, fans of the game and his family for being by his side. "I am extremely honoured and humbled"- @ImRo45 on being nominated for the prestigious Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna Award 2020 #TeamIndia," the BCCI captioned the video shared on their official Twitter handle on Sunday.
Rohit Sharma was India's star performer at the 2019 ODI World Cup and was also named the ICC ODI Cricketer of the Year for his stupendous performance.
Interestingly, the opening batsman also became the first player in the history of the game to score five ODI centuries in one edition of the World Cup.
Rohit is also the first batsman to score four T20I centuries and have two centuries in his maiden appearance as a Test opener.
"We went through a lot of data and considered various parameters before shortlisting the nominees. Rohit Sharma has set new benchmarks as a batsman and achieved scores people thought were not possible in the shorter formats of the game. We feel he is worthy of getting the prestigious Khel Ratna award for his commitment, conduct, consistency and his leadership skills," BCCI president Sourav Ganguly said in the press release.
Moreover, Ishant Sharma, Shikhar Dhawan and Deepti Sharma have been nominated for Arjuna Award.