NEW DELHI: Thursday, 30th Match 2017, marked a special day for the ace Indian cricketer and Captain, Virat Kohli, who received the fourth highest civilian award – Padma Shri. Although preceded by Bharat Ratna, Padma Vibhushan and Padma Bhushan, the honor is no less and this certainly showed on the happy face of Kohli who accepted the award with much grace.
The ceremony took place at Rashtrapati Bhavan and the award was given away by the President of India, Pranab Mukherjee. Kohli was shortlisted as a recipient because of his winning streak throughout the year and particularly guiding the Indian team to World No. 1 test rankings after taking over the responsibility from his predecessor, Mahendra Singh Dhoni. Thrilled by the achievement, Virat took to twitter to express his happiness and in turn found many hearty congratulations and wishes from his athlete peers and other dignitaries.
What an absolute honor and a memorable day to receive the Padma Shri award from the President of India. God's been kind. 😇😇😇
Jai Hind 🇮🇳 pic.twitter.com/zh3EUkrTFl— Virat Kohli (@imVkohli) March 30, 2017
Virat Kohli was one of the eight deserving people who were picked for the prestigious Padma Shri alongside hockey captain P.R. Sreejesh, Rio Olympics heroes, wrestler Sakshi Malik, gymnast Dipa Karmakar, Paralympian Mariyappan Thangavelu and Deepa Malik, discus thrower Vikas Gowda and blind cricket team captain Shekhar Naik.
The complete list of awardees was revealed on the eve of Republic Day this year. The ceremony was attended by the Vice President of India Hamid Ansari, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union Minister Rajnath Singh, Speaker of the Lok Sabha Sumitra Mahajan along with other dignitaries.
