4 min readMar 15, 2026 11:01 PM IST
Star batters Shubman Gill and Smriti Mandhana headlined the individual awards list, being named as India’s Best International Cricketers (Men’s and Women’s) at the BCCI Naman Awards 2026 in Mumbai on Sunday. Here’s a look at the key awards that were handed out:
Polly Umrigar Award (Best international men’s cricketer): Shubman Gill
It was Shubman Gill’s second Cricketer of the Year award after first winning it in 2023. The ODI and Test captain, who was not part of the recent T20 World Cup triumph, had a prolific season in the longer formats. On the tour of England, skipper Gill led from the front in the five-Test series, finishing as the top run-getter with 754 runs in 10 innings at an average of 75.40, including four centuries and a top score of 269. Gill also played a pivotal role in India’s Champions Trophy triumph last year, having entered the tournament as the No.1-ranked ODI batter in the world. He made an unbeaten 101 against Bangladesh in India’s opening match, and finished the tournament with 188 runs.
Best international women’s cricketer: Smriti Mandhana
One of world’s best, Smriti Mandhana received the award for the fifth time. Mandhana finished 2025 with 1,703 international runs, including 1,362 in ODIs, the most by any woman in a calendar year. In doing so, Mandhana became the first batter in women’s ODI history to score 1,000 runs in a single calendar year. After a slow start to her World Cup campaign, Mandhana was central to India’s maiden title triumph, aggregating 434 runs in nine matches to end as the tournament as India’s leading run-scorer and the second-highest overall behind South Africa’s Laura Wolvaardt. Before the World Cup, the left-hander Mandhana smashed a 50-ball century against Australia in New Delhi to register the fastest ODI hundred by an Indian batter.
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Col. C. K. Nayudu Lifetime Achievement Award: Roger Binny
Binny was a key member of the 1983 World Cup winning squad – Kapil’s Devils – and also had a stint as the BCCI President recently. The 70-year-old from Karnataka took 18 wickets at the 1983 World Cup, a record back then and was known for his ability to swing the ball through the air and come up with crucial contributions with the bat. In 72 ODIs, he picked up 77 wickets with a best of 4/29 and scored 629 runs. He also played 27 Tests for India. Binny also coached the U19 team to victory at the 2000 World Cup in Sri Lanka.
Col. C. K. Nayudu Lifetime Achievement Award: Rahul Dravid
One of the most iconic Indian players, Dravid was revered in the game for his textbook technique and prolific run-scoring in both ODIs and T20Is. He was also the captain of India, having succeeded Sourav Ganguly and oversaw some important wins like in West Indies and England, even though the ODI World Cup stint in 2007 didn’t go to plan. As a batter though, few cricketers in the world can match his class and elegance, especially in Tests. Dravid finished his playing career with a whopping 13,288 runs in Tests and 10,889 runs in ODIs. He has then gone on to be the World Cup-winning coach with U19s as well as the senior men’s teams.
Col. C. K. Nayudu Lifetime Achievement Award: Mithali Raj
Serial record-breaker and trailblazer for the women’s game long before the riches of WPL and international cricket trickled into the game, Raj was a teenage prodigy who went on to fulfil her destiny as one of the greatest batters the game has seen. Having scored a century on international debut at 16 against Ireland in 1999, Raj went on to play for India for nearly 23 years. Her 7805 runs in ODIs is the most by any cricketer in women’s 50-over format with only one other player having crossed even 6,000. Before Harmanpreet Kaur and Co’s triumph in 2025, Raj had led India to two finals – in 2005 and 2017.
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Notable mentions: Shafali Varma (Best Woman Cricketer Senior Domestic One-Day), Ira Jadhav (Best Woman Cricketer (Domestic), Harsh Dubey (Best All Rounder in the Ranji Trophy), and Ayush Mhatre (Best All Rounder in Domestic Limited Overs Competitions) too won awards for their strong performances across the 2024-25 domestic season.
(With PTI inputs)
