Interview with HarismitaVaideswaran, Author of Ultimate Indian Cricket Champions

Ultimate Indian Cricket Champions brings Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, Shubman Gill, Ravichandran Ashwin and Suryakumar Yadav to life, inspiring young readers with stories of courage, grit, self-belief, and the power of showing up anyway.
on May 19, 2026

Frontlist: Your Ultimate Indian Cricket Champions series brings icons like Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, Shubman Gill, and R. Ashwin, and Suryakumar Yadav to life for young readers how did you shape their stories to resonate with “The Reader of Tomorrow”?

Harismita: Cricket has taught me, individually and personally, a lot: what it means to be brave, to show up even when things are difficult, to do it over and over again with discipline, to fight hard and true and fair, to love something with all your heart and give yourself over to it. The cricketers I write about embody so many of these ideals and practices through their approach to the sport Rohit Sharma working hard on being consistent, Virat Kohli loving the sport so much and bringing that very driven sort of energy to the field, R. Ashwin refusing to give up cricket no matter what, and so on.

Their lives and stories already resonate with the next generation of readers; I was simply seeking out values, narratives, stories that would make a young girl or boy reading these stories feel less alone, and maybe, if they’re going through a difficult time, to see the value in choosing to be brave, in showing up, which is what these books, and cricket at large, taught me how to do.

Frontlist: Each book highlights defining moments of resilience how did you choose which life events would inspire and connect most with young readers?

Harismita: I can’t say I set out with any explicit criteria on how I’d choose which life events of any given cricketer I’d write about; I did ask these guiding questions throughout the process of writing over and over again: “Would a nine- or ten-year-old feel less lonely when they read this? Would they see themselves in the emotional landscapes of this story? Would they see these cricketers they idolize and find something of value to take into their own lives? Would it help them make sense of their world, their feelings, their lives, when things felt difficult?” Hearteningly, for many of the narratives I encountered in the lives of every single one of these cricketers, the answer was often a resounding yes.

Frontlist: In a fast-paced digital world, what storytelling techniques did you use to make these books immersive and “unputdownable” for today’s generation?

Harismita: One of the narrative frameworks I used, which was again largely angled towards bringing a sense of immediacy to the story, was a kind of looping structure: each book begins with a contemporary cricketing moment from recent history: for Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli, this was the Champions Trophy of 2025; for Shubman Gill, it was his first Test series as captain, also 2025; for R. Ashwin, it was one of his last Test matches played at home in Chennai in 2024, and so on.

At the end of the book, after meandering through their childhoods, careers, professional lives, and cricket highlight reels, each books returns to the present, full circle. I really enjoyed employing this structure; because I feel it allows the reader to see the player in all their present

glory and feel “in the know” about who they’re reading about before spending some time discovering the paths they took to get where they are now. Each epilogue in each book also takes that a little further, zooms in on a crowning achievement in the present to acknowledge the legacy of the player, and closes that loop.

I used the present tense throughout the books, and I found it gave the story a sense of action-packed immediacy that allowed me to place the reader right in the middle of the action. With something as swiftly paced and action-packed as cricket, I felt like that proximity to the action emotionally and physically, in the sense of the action being depicted was really important.

Frontlist: The series goes beyond cricket into themes of grit, ambition, and self-belief how important was it for you to embed these life lessons within the narrative?

Harismita: Very! As I said earlier, cricket has taught me, personally, a lot about values I believe are quite central to my worldview: bravery and courage, honesty, discipline, being true to yourself, fighting the good fight even when things feel

difficult, or even impossible, and so on. All that said, I’m nobody to preach about these values to anyone, including our young readers. Instead, I think what was important to me was to create a space where any young reader engaging with this work would, hopefully, feel like they’re not alone in their struggles with the world, whatever they may be.

Frontlist: Your professional journey spans academia, media, and cricket how did these experiences help you bring fresh perspectives to these well-known stories?

Harismita: I feel like it’s quite easy to think of academia and media + cricket (which still have some overlap between them) as fairly independent siloes – that’s certainly what I used to think until I began to inhabit both these worlds simultaneously. I’m doing my PhD in English – but I also spend a lot of time in the world of cricket, communicating with the world at large. For the longest time, there was a certain thrill that I associated largely with the experience of reading a good story – a well executed, well-crafted piece of writing, something that had me by the collar because it was just that good. Stories are one of the oldest, most abiding loves of my life. One of my favourite realisations in the last few years is that I’ve found this thrill, this joy in abundance in cricket. That intersection of literature and sport is something I really enjoy working at,and I feel like the ways in which I see cricket and its players is deeply influenced by my academic and literary training.

Both these realms I work have formed a give-and-take relationship with each other: my work in English influences the way I think about narratives, craft, expertise, politics, culture etc. in cricket; my time in cricket has changed the way I think and write about books, stories, literary cultures, and how I communicate beyond the classroom or academic spaces.

Frontlist: Modern readers look for relatability in their heroes what makes Sharma, Kohli, Gill, R. Ashwin, and Yadav relevant role models for today’s youth?

Harismita: We see these legendary cricketers and we think of them as extraordinary, otherworldly people – they feel so much larger than life so much of the time. When I was writing these books and researching the lives of these cricketers, I found an inner world that wasn’t very different from mine – or yours, or any other young reader’s. Any young child might well understand what it feels like to want something really, really badly – a role in a play, a good grade, etc – and not get it. Almost all young readers know, atleast once in a while, how it feels to be left out, or like nobody understands you.

They’ve been where you are, and they got through it. Had your heart broken because you really wanted something and didn’t get it? Rohit Sharma’s been there. Had a hard time fitting in, and

were trying to figure out what to do with your loneliness? Ask R. Ashwin. Had to choose between staying true to yourself and what the world expects of you? This is how Suryakumar Yadav dealt with that feeling.

They’re good role models because the fruits of their labour and their choices are out there for the world to see; their lives offer a kind of hope and light – if you feel stuck, so did your heroes, and here’s what they did about it. That can be a comforting thing to know – that you’re not alone in what you’re going through!

Frontlist: While writing about real-life sports icons, how did you balance authenticity with creating a high-energy, engaging narrative?

Harismita: Lots and lots and lots of reading, research, and trying to get inside the heads of these players. As you correctly pointed out before this, most of these stories are out there, and they’re well known about these players. Authenticity comes from the facts, but the emotional interiority of these people – putting yourself in their shoes, imagining the worlds they lived in, their thoughts, feelings, and what they wanted out of life – that, to me, is what breathes life into the story. That’s what makes it real – especially to a young reader.

Frontlist: What is the one key takeaway or mindset you hope “The Reader of Tomorrow” carries after reading this series?

Harismita: The world can be a scary place. It can feel cold, unkind, indifferent to you. The things getting in your way, the problems you are facing, they can feel big, difficult, insurmountable, permanent. It can feel pointless to try when the thing in front of you towers over you.
Do it anyway. Be brave anyway. Love with all your heart anyway. Show up anyway. Even if you think you’ll be bad at it, or you’ll lose, fight anyway. Be kind, be hopeful, be open to the world anyway.

Cricket in India is a game of slim chances. Stop by a cricket academy near you, go ask any player in the Indian cricket team today what it took them to get where they are, to play for India:
they’ll tell you it wasn’t easy. You have to beat the odds over and over again, beat out thousands of aspiring players to make the cut. It can be hard. It can take years of work. You can give it your all – and you might still not make it. Love what you do – and do it anyway. It’s worth it.