New Delhi, March 15, 2026: The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) is going to honor Shubhman Gill with the Men’s Cricketer of the Year Award. The list of BCCI Naman Awards 2026 has been announced, in which Shubhman Gill has received the Men’s Cricketer of the Year award and Smriti Mandhana has received the Best Women’s International Cricketer of the Year award.
The BCCI Naman Awards, instituted in 2006–07, recognize the best performing cricketers over the past year. The International Cricketer of the Year Award in the men’s category is also known as the Polly Umrigar Award.
Shubhman Gill is currently the captain of India’s Test and ODI teams, and this will be the second time that Gill will be honored with the Polly Umrigar Award. He scored 983 runs in nine Test matches in 2025, finishing as the leading run-scorer in Test cricket last year. During this period, he scored 754 runs in the five-match series against England. He also scored 490 runs in 11 ODIs.
On the other hand, Smriti Mandhana is going to receive the Best Women International Cricketer award for the second consecutive year and this will be the fifth time that Mandhana will be honored with this award.
Gill did not play T20 World Cup
Shubhman Gill was dropped from the T20 team before the T20 World Cup 2026. He was dropped due to poor form and since the beginning of 2025, he has been unable to score big consistently in T20Is. He paid the price for this by being left out of the T20 World Cup team. It is noteworthy that India had registered a historic victory by defeating New Zealand by 96 runs in the 2026 T20 World Cup final.
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