They are presented by the President of India in the same ceremony at the Rashtrapati Bhavan usually on 29 August each year along with the national adventure award.

[3] First presented in the year 1997–1998, a total of four sportspersons have been honoured with the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna, the highest sporting honour of India, in cricket for their "most outstanding performance at the international level" over the period of last four years.

The first recipient was Sachin Tendulkar, considered one of the greatest batsmen of all time according to the Encyclopedia Britannica, and the first cricketer to score 100 centuries in international competition.

[5] The second recipient, MS Dhoni, is the former captain of the Indian national team in limited-overs formats from 2007 to 2016 and in Test cricket from 2008 to 2014.

Currently, Kohli is the 4th leading run-scorer of all time with close to 27324 runs, and has notched up 81 international hundreds.