Twenty-two-year-old Putthawong had entered the contest as the world’s leading T20I wicket-taker, and though Deepti Sharma overtook her later that evening, the record would move between the two spinners over the next few days.
“I think I came to know about the possibility of becoming the No. 1 when I took my 150th T20I wicket in Malaysia, but I still did not know how many wickets were needed,” Putthawong tells Cricinfo from Japan after Thailand’s Asian Games campaign.
“Then I found out that I was among the top five, but I didn’t think about it. My focus was always on maintaining my own standards. If the wicket I take helps the team, then it is good for me and Thailand.”
Born and raised in Chiang Mai in northern Thailand, Putthawong took up cricket in school at 12 and played for fun. The Cricket Association of Thailand (CAT) introduced the game as a developmental sport in schools to encourage more children to take part; CAT’s coaches taught PE teachers around the country the basics. At the same time, cricket was also added to the national youth games, in which multiple schools competed.
Turning to cricket professionally was not on Putthawong’s mind. “I think I was 14 when I had to go to Bangkok for Thailand U-19 selection for the first time,” she says. “That is when I first spoke to my mother and then my father [about cricket]. The support for travel and accommodation came from the Sports Authority of Chiang Mai. I was not selected the first time but was called again about four-five months later, and then I was selected for the national camp.”
Putthawong started as a batter in school, but her coaches thought she was a far better bowler, so she trained to be a left-arm seamer. Not built tall, she did not bowl very fast, but accuracy was an asset from the start, and it was what got her into the U-19 camp. Thailand’s head coach at the time, Harshal Pathak, made her switch to left-arm spin. Back then Soraya Lateh was the only other left-arm spinner in the Thailand team and they needed options. It took some work, but Putthawong was willing to put in the hard yards.
Putthawong had a smooth action even as a left-arm seamer, so tweaking it to bowl spin was the easy part. Fixing the run-up took some time. The drills involved a lot of spot bowling. For about six months, she did not bowl spin in the nets against batters, though she was itching to.
“We didn’t allow her to bowl in the nets because learning a new skill requires some changes,” says Akshaykumar Yadav, Thailand’s assistant coach, who also plays for the national men’s team. “Patcha [Putthawong] needed to fully get used to her new action. She naturally had good air speed as a seamer and had to learn to use her fingers to spin the ball. That took a little time. Then we worked on her variations, speed changes and pitching.”
“She has a very good temperament and is very calm as a person,” Akshaykumar says of Putthawong. “She always had the skill and was also tactically good. She is working more on the tactical aspects ever since we made her part of the leadership group. During our high-performance camps in India in Pune and Patna [in 2019-20], we made her bowl against some U-19 batters and state batters. They used to attack, so she had to find options. Patcha is a quick learner and has good grasping power, that is why she developed quite fast.”
With success came increased responsibilities. Putthawong was only 20 when she was asked to captain in the 2024 Asia Cup, due to injuries to senior players.
“When I started playing, I never thought I would be the captain one day,” she says. “I just wanted to help the team as much as I could. But when I became captain, I felt pressure for the first time, because I had to think a lot. On the field, I had to think about my own bowling plans and also the team’s goals. I think I liked it, and I am sure with more experience, it will get easier.”
Akshaykumar says that since Putthawong has been in the national fold from a young age, it helped the team management see her progress and rope her early into the leadership group.
“Patcha keeps asking questions. She always wants to know, if we are doing something, why we are doing it. For us as coaches, that is a sign of a player being interested and wanting to grow. She has developed the ability to bowl under pressure as well as take wickets. She has tactical awareness too.
“We started seeing her as a leader in the group. It was not just because she was taking wickets. We saw that people around her started trusting her. She has been around with the senior team for a long time now, so she has seen the ups and downs. She is calm, and a calm mind always makes good decisions.”
Besides playing cricket, she is a second-year student of sports science at a university in Ang Thong near Bangkok. Does she manage to make the time to relax and let her hair down?
“I am not introverted and have a lot of friends,” she says with a wide grin. “I love to spend time with myself too. But I have a huge social circle. And I also have fun making videos on TikTok and Instagram.”
Student life is a large part of the team environment, in fact.
“A few of our girls study in the same university as Thipatcha, so they study together,” Akshaykumar says. “A few days ago, I think it was 11pm, they were sitting in the corridor [of the team’s hotel] and were [taking] an online exam. So that is their life. They are into cricket but they also want to study and are managing both.”
He appreciates the energy Putthawong brings to the squad.
“She is always curious about new things and tries to implement them. She doesn’t take her wickets tally too seriously. Even after a good performance, the conversations revolve around what she could have done better or the areas she could improve on. She is very humble. And that, I think, will serve her well. I hope she plays for Thailand for a long time.”
S Sudarshanan is a sub-editor at Cricinfo. @Sudarshanan7
