The Union government released the name of sportspersons who will be conferred with National Sports Awards. Two cricketers Mithali Raj and Shikhar Dhawan were among the names. While Dhawan will get the Arjuna Award, Mithali will get Major Dhyan Chand Khel Ratna Award. The awardees will receive their awards from the President of India at a specially organized function at the Darbar Hall of Rashtrapati Bhavan on 13^th November, 2021 (Saturday) at 1630 hrs. National Sports Awards are given every year to recognize and reward excellence in sports.

Raj is one of the only female cricketers to have a long lasting career—22 years, besides she became synonymous with women’s cricket in India with many upcoming talent idolizing her. Her emergence on the biggest stage inspired the likes of Shafali Verma, Richa Ghosh to take up cricket in tier-2 cities across the country. She made her India debut on June 26, 1999. Only Sachin Tendulkar (22 years 91 days) has a longer career than her across men’s and women’s cricket. No other cricketer has been active in international cricket for as long as 22 years. She has so far represented India in 11 Tests, 215 ODIs and 89 T20Is so far in her career. She has scored a combined 10,203 runs across formats including eight centuries and 77 half-centuries.