The recently appointed captain of the India cricket team in all three formats of the game, Virat Kohli, is set to receive the coveted Padma Shri award from the Narendra Modi government on the 68th Republic Day of India this Thursday.
Read: The top Indian sportspersons of 2016 | India sports calendar 2017
In the hierarchy of awards given by the government of India, the Padma Shri is the fourth highest civilian award behind Bharat Ratna, Padma Vibhushan and Padma Bhushan.
In the Padma Shri category, apart from Kohli, other Indian stars from the Olympics 2016 will also be conferred with the honour. That list includes Olympics bronze medallist Sakshi Malik as well as artistic gymnast Dipa Karmakar, who won hearts and accolades at the same time with her perfectly-executed produnova vault at the quadrennial games last August.
It was also reported that India cricket team veteran MS Dhoni would also be conferred with the prestigious Padma Bhushan, along with PV Sindhu, who filled Indian hearts with her jaw-dropping displays in the Rio 2016 Olympics that lead to her winning a silver in the end, but the official release from the government had no mention of them.
Padma Awards 2017: List of sportspersons
Padma Shri
Virat Kohli (cricket)
Sakshi Malik (amateur wrestling)
Dipa Karmakar (artistic gymnastics)
Vikas Gowda (discus throw)
Mariyappan Thangavelu (paralympics)
Deepa Malik (paralympics)
PR Sreejesh (field hockey)
Shekar Naik (blind cricket)
