Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty nominated for the Khel Ratna Award; know full list of nominees

India's star badminton men's doubles pair Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty have been nominated for the Major Dhyan Chand Khel Ratna Award. The government has taken this decision in view of their remarkable performance in the last two years.

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If Satwik-Chirag gets Khel Ratna Award, then they can become the first doubles pair to achieve this feat. This pair won the gold medal in the Asian Games this year, while last year they had also targeted gold in the Commonwealth Games. This pair was also successful in becoming number one for the first time this year. This is the reason why they have been nominated for Khel Ratna award.

The Sports Ministry has constituted a 12-member committee to decide on the Major Dhyan Chand Khel Ratna Award and Arjuna Award this year. Retired Supreme Court Justice AM Khanwilkar will head the committee. Apart from him, there are six former international athletes in this committee. Hockey player Dhanraj Pillay, former paddler Kamlesh Mehta, ex-boxer Akhil Kumar, women shooter and current national coach Shuma Shirur, former cricketer Anjum Chopra, badminton player Tripti Murgunde and powerlifter Farman Pasha are also part of the panel

Full List of National Sports Awards Nominations

Major Dhyan Chand Khel Ratna Award: Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty (badminton).

Arjuna Award: Mohammed Shami (cricket), Ajay Reddy (blind cricket) Ojas Pravin Deotale, Aditi Gopichand Swami (archery), Sheetal Devi (para archery), Parul Chaudhary and M Sreeshankar (athletics), Mohd Hussamuddin (boxing), R Vaishali (chess), Divyakriti Singh and Anush Agarwalla (equestrian), Diksha Dagar (golf), Krishan Bahadur Pathak and Sushila Chanu (hockey), Pinky (lawn ball), Aishwary Pratap Singh Tomar (shooting), Antim Panghal (wrestling), Ayhika Mukherjee (table tennis).

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Dhyan Chand Lifetime Award: Kavita (kabaddi), Manjusha Kanwar (badminton) Vineet Kumar Sharma (hockey).

Dronacharya Award: Ganesh Prabhakaran (mallakhamb), Mahavir Saini (para athletics), Lalit Kumar (wrestling), RB Ramesh (chess), Shivendra Singh (hockey).