Thailand batter Natthakan Chantham has tried adding Suryakumar Yadav’s famous Supla shot to her repertoire. The results, by her own admission, have been a little painful.
“I have tried, but it hit me everywhere!” Chantham laughed in an interview with Olympics.com ahead of the Asian Games 2026.
“I would love to (play it), but first I have to stick to my strengths.”
The Supla shot may remain a work in progress, but Suryakumar Yadav’s batting has long fascinated Natthakan Chantham, who counts the Indian star as her favourite cricketer.
With limited opportunities to watch him in person, the Thai batter follows SKY through highlights on YouTube, Instagram and the Indian cricket team’s social media channels.
What has caught her attention is not simply Suryakumar Yadav’s array of unconventional strokes, but the confidence and freedom with which he plays them.
“I could see his confidence and attitude to play,” Chantham said. “He just times the ball. He does not care about having good technique, or (looking) beautiful. He just times the ball well, and it becomes beautiful like he is.”
If Natthakan Chantham ever gets the opportunity to meet Suryakumar Yadav, she already knows what she would ask him.
A lesson in the Supla shot.
“I want a tip to play properly – what do you call that shot? Supla shot,” she said.
Suryakumar Yadav, however, is not Natthakan Chantham’s only Indian batting inspiration.
Shubman Gill is another player she follows closely, although for a slightly different reason.
“Effortless,” Chantham said when asked what she liked about Shubman Gill’s batting. “I love someone who plays effortless and times the ball well.”
And rather than ask Shubman Gill about technique, Natthakan Chantham would be more interested in understanding what goes through his mind when he is at the crease.
“I might ask about his thinking when he plays, when he’s batting,” she said. “I want to know not about technique, but about how he plays, about the mind.”
Natthakan Chantham’s affinity for Indian cricket also extends to her own development as a batter.
She credits Indian coach Harshal Pathak with having a significant influence on her batting, particularly in helping her develop a more aggressive approach.
“He guided me a lot – how to build the game, how to play aggressive batting,” Chantham said. “He impacted my batting a lot.”
Her relationship with cricket, however, began entirely by chance.
At eight years old, Natthakan Chantham had wanted to join the movie club at school. It was full, leaving cricket as one of the few available options.
“I picked up cricket accidentally,” she recalled. “I wanted to pick the movie club, but the movie club was full and the cricket club was still empty.”
She enjoyed the sport enough to stay and would later become part of the formative years of the Thailand women’s cricket team.
Those beginnings were challenging. Without established cricketers at home to emulate, Natthakan Chantham said Thailand looked towards leading nations, including India, Australia and England, for reference.
Cricket still remains relatively unfamiliar to the wider public in Thailand. Chantham says she occasionally has to explain the sport when people ask what she plays.
“They still have no idea about cricket,” she said. “When they ask me what sport I play and I say cricket, I have to say it slowly, properly.
“They say, ‘Oh, is it hockey?’ And I say, ‘No, I said cricket, it’s not hockey.’”
That makes competing at the Asian Games particularly meaningful.
While cricket tournaments such as the Asia Cup and World Cup qualifiers may not be widely recognised by the general public in Thailand, Natthakan Chantham says the Asian Games and SEA Games carry much greater resonance.
“When I tell them SEA Games, Asian Games, they definitely know,” she said. “They know that’s quite big for you and quite popular in Thailand.”
For Chantham and her teammates, the Asian Games also comes with the pressure of a knockout format and little margin for error.
“We have no excuse to say, ‘We can go easy,’ or ‘Next opportunity, next chance.’ We have no next chance,” she said.
“We have to go 100 per cent and no excuses.”
Beyond the immediate results, Natthakan Chantham hopes Thailand competing against established cricket nations can show the next generation at home what is possible.
“The new generation have no idea about playing along with the big teams like India, Pakistan, Australia, England,” she said.
“But when we reach that, it means we message them, ‘You also can do it.’”
