‘Promise to bring many more laurels to the country’: Rohit Sharma thanks fans after Khel Ratna honour
Rohit Sharma became only the fourth Indian cricketer after Sachin Tendulkar, MS Dhoni and Virat Kohli to win the prestigious Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna award.
India batsman Rohit Sharma on Saturday thanked his fans and followers around the world a day after he, along with four other Indian sportspersons, won the prestigious Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna award. Rohit, who became only the fourth Indian cricketer to win the award after Sachin Tendulkar, MS Dhoni and Virat Kohli, called the Khel Ratna a huge honour and promised to continue doing the good work and bring more pride to the nation.
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“Thank you so much for all your well wishes and support throughout the year. It’s been a wonderful ride,” Rohit said via a video message on Twitter. “To receive such a sporting honour in India is a great privilege and I’m very happy about it. I owe this to you all. Without your support it wouldn’t have been possible. So keep at it, keep supporting and I promise to bring many more laurels to the country.
“Since we are social distancing, a virtual hug from me to all you guys.”
The period of consideration for the award was between January 1, 2016 to December 31, 2019. In this while, Rohit has had a stellar run, becoming the first T20I cricketer to score four centuries and hold the record for the most 150-plus scores in ODIs – 8. Besides, since the beginning of 2017, Rohit has the highest number of ODI centuries – 18. With 28 hundreds, Rohit is ranked fourth in the all-time leading ODI centurions.
Named the ICC ODI Cricketer of the Year for 2019, Rohit became the first player in history to score five ODI centuries in a single edition of the World Cup. He surpassed MS Dhoni to hit the maximum number of sixes in international matches on Indian soil. Later in the year, being assigned the responsibility of opening the batting in Tests, Rohit became the only player to have twin centuries in his maiden appearance as a Test opener.
