Shubman bags Polly Umrigar Award, Smriti Mandhana makes history with fifth BCCI honour

Shubman Gill and Smriti Mandhana were crowned the Best International Cricketers (Men’s and Women’s) astatine the BCCI Naman Awards 2026 connected Sunday, celebrating their exceptional performances during the 2024–2025 season. Gill claimed the prestigious

Polly Umrigar

Award, marking his 2nd Cricketer of the Year rubric aft archetypal winning successful 2023, portion Mandhana earned the honour for the 5th time.The ceremonial besides recognised erstwhile greats Roger Binny,

Rahul Dravid

, and

Mithali Raj

with the Col. C. K. Nayudu Lifetime Achievement Award, the BCCI’s highest accolade, successful designation of their singular contributions to Indian cricket.Gill enjoyed a singular 2025, cementing his presumption arsenic a pillar of India’s batting line-up successful the longer formats. He led the mode during India’s five-Test bid successful England, finishing arsenic the starring run-scorer with 754 runs successful 10 innings astatine an mean of 75.40, including 4 centuries and a career-best 269.

He besides played a cardinal relation successful India’s Champions Trophy triumph past year, entering the tourney arsenic the world’s No.1-ranked ODI batter.

Gill began with an unbeaten 101 against Bangladesh and ended the contention with 188 runs.Mandhana, meanwhile, completed 2025 with 1,703 planetary runs, including 1,362 successful ODIs—the highest by immoderate pistillate successful a azygous year—becoming the archetypal pistillate batter successful ODI past to surpass 1,000 runs successful a calendar year. She was instrumental successful India’s maiden Women’s World Cup victory, scoring 434 runs crossed 9 matches to decorativeness arsenic India’s apical scorer and second-highest overall. Earlier, Mandhana had smashed a 50-ball period against Australia successful New Delhi, registering the fastest ODI 100 by an Indian batter and breaking

Virat Kohli

’s 52-ball record.