India men’s cricket team captain Virat Kohli and weightlifter Mirabai Chanu on Tuesday were conferred with the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna Award by President Ram Nath Kovind at the Rashtrapati Bhavan. The annual National Sports Awards were bestowed on the best athletes that the country has seen in the past one year.

Kohli is the third cricketer to be awarded the Khel Ratna after Sachin Tendulkar (1997) and MS Dhoni (2007). BCCI had recommended Kohli for the past three years but in 2016 he missed out owing to the Olympics where the award went to wrestler Sakshi Malik, shuttler PV Sindhu and gymnast Deepa Karmakar. Last year it went to hockey player Sardar Singh and para-athlete Devendra Jhajharia.