In a recent development, star Indian batsman Rohit Sharma has expressed his gratitude and stated that he is ‘extremely honoured’ to be nominated by the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) for the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna award, country’s highest sporting honour.

“Extremely honoured and humbled to be nominated by the BCCI for Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna Award which is the highest sporting honour in India. I am grateful to BCCI, to all my teammates, support staff, fans of the game and my family for sticking by. Thank you very much,” the Hitman  said in a video released by BCCI on their official Twitter account.

“I am extremely honored and humbled”- @ImRo45 on being nominated for the prestigious Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna Award 2020 🗣️🙌 #TeamIndia pic.twitter.com/GmHqpEvwkF

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— BCCI (@BCCI) May 31, 2020

While Rohit was nominated for the prestigious Khel Ratna award, Ishant Sharma, Shikhar Dhawan and Deepti Sharma were nominated for Arjuna Awards on Saturday.

“The Government of India’s Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports had sought invitations for the respective awards with the period of consideration beginning 1st January 2016 to 31st December 2019,” the BCCI had earlier said in a release.

“Rohit Sharma, Team India’s vice-captain in the white-ball format has been a prolific run-getter. Named the ICC ODI Cricketer of the Year for 2019, the stylish opener became the first player in the history of the game to score five ODI centuries in one edition of the World Cup. He is also the first batsman to score four T20I centuries and is the first player to have twin centuries in his maiden appearance as a Test opener,” the release added.

“Shikhar Dhawan holds the record for the fastest Test century on debut and is the only batsman in the world to have won two consecutive golden bats (for most runs) in the ICC Champions Trophy. He is also the quickest Indian batsman to reach 2000 and 3000 runs in ODIs and second-fastest Indian to score 4000 and 5000 runs in ODIs.

“The youngest Indian to play all three formats of the game, Ishant Sharma has been leading the Indian pace bowling attack and holds the record for most wickets by an Indian pacer outside Asia. A top-class all-rounder, Deepti Sharma holds the record for the highest individual WODI score by an Indian player and is also the only Indian spinner to take 6 WODI wickets,” it further said.