Rohit Sharma, the India limited-overs vice-captain, is likely to be conferred the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna Award, India’s highest sporting honour, after the National Sports Awards Committee, instituted by the country’s sports ministry, zeroed in on four athletes for this year’s honours. The only cricketer to be recommended by the committee for this year’s award, Rohit is only the fourth cricketer, after Sachin Tendulkar, MS Dhoni and Virat Kohli, to have been picked for the distinction.

Rohit, who was nominated for the honour by the BCCI in May, was selected by the Awards’ Committee comprising former India opener Virender Sehwag and Sardar Singh, the former captain of the men’s national hockey team, who both met at the Sports Authority of India headquarters in New Delhi.

Rohit’s Khel Ratna Award win comes on the back of an outstanding 2019 with the bat: 556 runs at an average of 92.66 in five Test matches, all while opening the batting for the first time, and 1490 ODI runs at 57.30, including the unprecedented feat of five centuries at a single World Cup.

“We went through a lot of data and considered various parameters before shortlisting the nominees,” Sourav Ganguly, the BCCI president, had said via a media release at the time of his nomination. “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.”

The other three athletes to be picked for this year’s Khel Ratna Award include wrestler Vinesh Phogat, paddler Manika Batra and 2016 Rio Paralympic Games gold-winning high jumper Mariyappan Thangavelu.