ACES Awards

Rohit Sharma first led the Mumbai Indians to a fourth IPL title. Then he smashed five centuries and a fifty at the ODI World Cup in England to stand out as the tournament’s No. 1 batsman with 648 runs. Sharma also had a rebirth in Test cricket. Promoted up the order in the three-match series against South Africa, he scored 529 runs with two centuries and a double century.

Mohammed Shami has been at the forefront of India’s pace evolution. This year, he became the second Indian to bag a hat-trick at the ODI World Cup, versus Afghanistan. In Test matches, Shami picked 14 wickets in six second innings at an average of 11.50 and strike rate of 22.6, emerging as a second-innings specialist.

Jasprit Bumrah was part of the Mumbai Indians side that won its fourth IPL title, picking up 19 wickets in 16 games. In his debut World Cup, Bumrah picked up 18 wickets in nine games at an average of 20.61 and economy rate of 4.41, along with the most maidens (nine). He then continued his rampage in Test cricket with 13 wickets in two matches against the West Indies in the Caribbean, including his best Test figures of 6/27.

The shot putter was the only Indian male to win an Asian Championships gold in 2019. Though he did not qualify for the final at the World Championships in Doha, the 25-year-old has been consistent this season, going past the 20m mark a number of times and hitting a high at the end of the season, breaking his own national record at the national open in Ranchi with a 20.92m effort.

The Asian silver medallist in Doha in April, the 3,000m steeplechaser has been in tremendous form this year. Two years ago, he had a personal best of 8:39.81s, but he has been on a national record-breaking spree since then, improving to 8:29.80s last year and then breaking it thrice this year, twice at the world championships, where he made the final and finished 13th with a new national record of 8:21.37s, which qualified the 25-year-old for the Tokyo Olympics.

A calf injury in the 1,500m final spoiled his Asian Championships performance this year, but Jinson Johnson came up with stunning time of 3:35.24s in Berlin in September, which bettered his national record by two seconds and qualified him for the Doha world championships.

Gurpreet Singh Sandhu in 2019 showcased why he is regarded as one of the top goalkeepers in Asian football. He kept seven clean-sheets for Bengaluru FC, most crucially in the final of the 2018-19 Indian Super League, where his team prevailed 1-0 to claim its first title. At the World Cup qualifier away to Qatar, Gurpreet made 11 saves against the Asian champion to help India earn a commendable point. He continued his excellent form in the 2019-20 ISL season, having conceded just once in four matches at the start of Bengaluru’s title defence.

Since making his senior team debut at the age of 17 in 2011, Mandeep Singh has established himself as an indispensable part of the Indian forward line. The Jalandhar lad’s contribution of 19 goals in 24 matches were vital to the national hockey team as it reached three multi-national tournament finals in 2019 and secured a spot at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. With his fine dribbling skills, striking ability and blistering pace, Mandeep is an important asset for Graham Reid’s team, which begins its preparations for the Olympics with the FIH Pro League in January.

After leading Bengaluru Bulls to a maiden Pro Kabaddi League title last season, and bagging the Most Valuable Player of the Season award, Pawan Kumar Sehrawat continued his exploits in 2019 to finish as the league’s highest point-getter. With a massive 360 points to his name, and a record 39 points in a single game, Sehrawat was named the league’s best raider. His spirited performances on the mat are sure to fetch him a spot in the national team ahead of the 2020 Kabaddi World Cup.

Since returning to India from his UK professional snooker stint in 2014, Pankaj Advani has claimed at least one International Billiards and Snooker Federation world title every calendar year, and 2019 followed the same trend, with Advani winning the world billiards (150-up format) and world snooker team trophies. The twin triumphs took the 34-year-old Advani’s world title tally to 23.

After switching from the 49kg category to the 52kg category this year, Amit Panghal secured gold medals at the Asian championships in Bangkok and the India Open in Guwahati before becoming the first Indian man to win a silver medal at the world boxing championships in Ekaterinburg in October, the 24-year-old losing to Olympic champion Shakhobidin Zoiorov of Uzbekistan in the final.

Bajrang Punia underlined his class by winning an Olympic quota place and his third World Wrestling Championships medal at Nur-Sultan, Kazakhstan. He beat Tulga Tumur of Mongolia to finish with a bronze medal, his second world championships bronze, and emerge as the most successful Indian in the event by a mile. The 25-year-old also bagged gold medals at top-level events including the Dan Kolov-Nikola Petrov tournament, the Asian championships (his second continental title), the Ali Aliev tournament and the Tibilis Grand Prix.

G. Sathiyan clinched the bronze medal at the Oman Open Challenge Plus and finished sixth at the Asian Cup in Yokohama, Japan, thereby booking a ticket for the World Cup to be held in Chengdu, China, that starts at the end of November. He reached the round of 32 at the world championships in Budapest. Sathiyan made the strongest of impressions at the Asian championships in Yogyakarta, Indonesia. In the team event, he defeated world No. 5 Harimoto Tomokazu of Japan in the quarterfinals where India eventually finished fifth, and in singles he reached the quarterfinals, becoming the first Indian in 43 years to do so at the continental event.

The 30-year-old from Chennai rose to a career-high world rank of 75 in 2019. He is the sixth best ranked Indian tennis player in the Open era, behind Vijay Amritraj (18), Ramesh Krishnan (23), Somdev Devvarman (62), Leander Paes (73) and Anand Amritraj (74). He played all four Grand Slams this year. While he qualified for the Australian Open, Prajnesh had direct entry at the French Open, Wimbledon and the US Open. Prajnesh qualified and beat 69th ranked Benoit Paire and 18th ranked Nikoloz Basilashvili at the ATP Masters event in Indian Wells before being beaten by Ivo Karlovic of Croatia, and he qualified for the next ATP Masters event at Miami, too.

Saurav Ghosal reached his career-best ranking of 10 in April, becoming the first Indian male singles squash player to do so. He entered the quarterfinals of the 2018-19 world championships and as well as the Grasshoppers Cup (PSA World Tour Gold event) that catapulted his ranking. His best this year was reaching the semifinals of the JP Morgan China Squash Open (PSA World Tour Gold Event) in September.