Poonam Yadav Collects Arjuna Award, Ravindra Jadeja Misses Function

On National Sports Day, the Indian Government has given a few prestigious awards to the athletes of India. In cricket, the leg-spinner from the women cricket Team, Poonam Yadav received Arjuna Award while the all-rounder in men senior team Ravindra Jadeja also named for the same.

India president Ramnath Kovind conferred Arjuna Award to cricketer Poonam Yadav while the other recipient Ravindra Jadeja, who is on an overseas assignment, skipped the ceremony held in the national capital on Thursday.

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Poonam is India women cricket team’s leading wicket-taker in T20Is and is ranked second in format by the ICC. In 2018, she finished with 35 wickets at 14.91 in 25 matches, the most by any bowler in the format.

Poonam Yadav has been consistent:

In 54 T20Is, she has 74 wickets with the best bowling figures of 4/9. Apart from that she has played one Test and 41 ODIs as well since making her international debut in April 2013.

Jadeja, 30, and Poonam, 28, were among four cricketers – Mohammed Shami and Jasprit Bumrah being the others – recommended for the award by the BCCI in April. They were the only cricketers among the pool of 19 athletes to receive the award this year.

#ArjunaAward for Poonam Yadav ?

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Sunil Gavaskar, Sachin Tendulkar, Sourav Ganguly, Virender Sehwag Virat Kohli, Ravichandran Ashwin etc. are some of the other leading cricketers who have been previously bestowed with the award. Ravindra Jadeja is the latest person to take the award.

In women, Poonam is the fifth active India women’s cricketer – and 11th overall since 1976 – to win the award. Mithali Raj (2003), Jhulan Goswami (2010), Harmanpreet Kaur (2017) and Smriti Mandhana (2018) are the other current players in the list.

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However, it was a proud moment for Poonam Yadav, as it isn’t a regular thing to have in a cricketer’s career. She has been a vital cog in India’s good run across the formats over the years.