The 2026 Naman Awards took place on March 15 and the biggest winners of the night were Shubman Gill and Smriti Mandhana, both of whom won BCCI’s Cricketer of the Year awards. Indian Test and ODI captain Shubman Gill won the prestigious Polly Umrigar Award for the Best International cricketer in Men’s cricket. While Smriti Mandhana was named the BCCI’s best cricketer of Women’s cricket. This is the second Cricketer of the Year Award for Shubman Gill. He previously won this award in 2023 for his stellar performance with the bat.
This is the fifth time Smriti Mandhana has won the award. She won it in 2018, 2020, 2021, 2023 and 2025. Speaking about this award, Smriti Mandhana scored 1800 runs in the year 2025 and also helped India Women lift the World Cup 2025 at home. She also was the second highest run getter in the Women’s World Cup.
Speaking on the award Smriti Mandhana said ‘’ I mean, I can talk about this award, but I can’t really speak about individual achievements without mentioning the team. It has truly been a brilliant year. So, thank you — and thank you to the BCCI for supporting women’s cricket the way you have. I hope we continue to reach even greater heights,"
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After receiving the award Gill acknowledged the success of the team "Firstly, thank you to the BCCI for recognising me with this award. Many greats and legends of Indian cricket have received it before, so it is a huge honour for me to be here. What we as an Indian cricket group were able to achieve last year was truly tremendous — five ICC trophies, something I don’t think has ever happened before," Gill said.
Shubman Gill has been excellent for India in 2025 especially in red ball cricket which has won him this award. He was the captain of Team India and helped India level the series 2-2 in England by leading with the bat. Gill scored 754 runs in 10 innings in that series. Shubman Gill also played a key role for India in the Champions Trophy 2025 which was won by Team India.
