On a star-studded Tuesday evening in Hyderabad, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) hosted the Naman Awards 2024, celebrating the men and women achievers of Indian cricket in the past few years. Royals players Yashasvi Jaiswal, Ravichandran Ashwin and Riyan Parag were among the host of winners announced by the apex body for their contributions to the sport in the country.

Jaiswal was awarded the 'Best International Debut (Men) for 2022/23', a year that saw him take rapid strides towards his international cricket career. In 2023, he made his Test debut in the West Indies and got off the mark with his maiden international hundred. Later that year, he also made his T20I debut and scored his first-ever hundred in India's victorious run at the Asian Games 2022 in Guangzhou, China. In 4 Tests and 17 T20Is so far, Yashasvi has already amassed nearly 1000 international runs with two centuries and five fifties.

On the other hand, Riyan Parag's consistent, all-round showing on the domestic circuit earned him the Lala Amarnath Award for 'Best All-Rounder in domestic limited-overs'. The Assam skipper received the award from India's current Test captain Rohit Sharma. Riyan has been in scintillating form with both bat and ball across India's domestic competitions in the last couple of seasons. In the 2022/23 Vijay Hazare Trophy, he finished as Assam's leading run-getter and fifth overall, with 552 runs to his name. He also picked 10 wickets in the tournament. In the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy, he scored over 250 runs while also bagging 6 wickets in his kitty. Parag's purple patch continued in the 2023/24 season as well, where he topped the batting charts in SMAT with over 500 runs.

Jaiswal also earned another prestigious accolade, the Dilip Sardesai Award, which is won by the top run-getters and wicket-takers in a year. On the tour of the West Indies, both Jaiswal and Ashwin were the top performers in their respective departments. While Jaiswal scored 266 runs in 3 innings, Ashwin displayed his dominance to collect 15 scalps in 4 innings.

Ashwin also won his second Polly Umrigar Award award for 2020-21, bestowed on the best international cricketer of the year.

Picture credit: R Ashwin/Instagram

Picture credit: R Ashwin/Instagram