It’s all about scoring runs for Kent this summer for New Zealand international batsman Tom Latham.

The diminuitive 24 year old left hander arrived in the county on Wednesday and will no doubt be plunged straight into the thick of it when Kent host Glamorgan in the County Championship beginning on Sunday.

With two weather affected draws to start their four day campaign behind them, Kent will be looking to secure their first victory of the season in front of their own fans at the Spitfire Ground, St Lawrence and Latham’s experience at the top of the order will be a welcome addition.

Still to meet all of his new team-mates, Latham is keen to get stuck into it and admitted he is here playing county cricket with one aim in mind:

“I had ankle surgery about two months ago, so that period has been all about rehab and getting back into running, but I’m certainly excited to be over here. It’s been a while since I knew I was coming over here and I’m really looking forward to the opportunity.”

“It’s nice to get here and see the sun’s out. The ground looks amazing and I can’t wait to get going on Sunday.”

“I’ll play all three formats and playing international cricket you have to chop and change.”

“I’m not too extravagent and go about my work quietly and try to bat long periods of time.”

“My philosophy and New Zealand’s philosophy is to put the team first and I’ve come here to build my experiences and I want to win games for Kent as well.”

Latham is expected to open the batting on Sunday alongside Daniel Bell-Drummond who has had an excellent start to the season and has been tipped for an England call up this summer with the New Zealand man admitting he didn’t know too much about his new colleague:

“I’ve been following the scores really closely and he’s had a really good start to the season and hopefully he can continue that.”

“If he keeps on putting those runs on the board, then hopefully those higher honours will come.”

Latham is more than capable of filling in as wicketkeeper with Sam Billings away at the IPL, but the New Zealander seems set to open the batting and leave the keeping to Adam Rouse:

“I guess it’s something Jimmy (Adams) and I need to talk about, but the last couple of years I have been focusing on the batting. I can keep if it’s a one off game here or there, but we’ll look at those finer details in the coming days.”

“My role personally is more of being a batsman and I’ve always wanted to come over and play county cricket to push my experiences of playing. I’m here for two and a half months and to play nine first class games, whereas back home we play ten throughout the whole season.”

Coming to England with the weather less than predictable, Latham arrives at a time when pitches might be more suited to the bowlers, but he admits he is prepared to face whatever comes his way:

“I was here last year when we played England and I’ve been over here a few times before and had those experiences, so wherever you play in the world it’s all about adapting as quickly as possible and I’ll certainly be looking to do that over the coming days.”

Later in the season Latham will be joined at Kent by South African fast bowler Kagiso Rabada and the batsman is glad the two will be on the same side:

“We toured South Africa and I we faced him. He’s a quality bowler certainly for his age and it’s nice that he’s coming here. He’s a wonderful bowler and he’ll add a lot to the group.”

As to where Latham slots in at Kent, the left-hander admits he won’t be one of the more vocal members of the dressing room:

“I’m certainly not one of the jokers or anything like that. I’ll go quietly about my business to start and then go from there.”

“I’ll let the jokers do the jokes and I’ll take a backward step.”

With a steely determination in his eye, Latham concedes he doesn’t really have targets in his mind whilst with Kent, but just wants to accumulate as many runs as possible:

“You have your goals, but it’s all about adapting to conditions and putting the team first. There’s lots of different situations that come up in four day cricket and I haven’t put a number on it.”

“Obviously I want to do well for the team first and foremost. If I can do that, hopefully the goals will take care of themselves.”

“For me, coming here and playing at Lord’s last year was pretty special and growing up I’ve always wanted to come here and play county cricket.”

“I’ve been here a few times over the last three or four years, so it’s not an unfamiliar ground, but I’m sure I will do a lot of learning over the next few weeks.”

Leaving Canterbury in New Zealand, Latham is hoping he clears the jet lag in time for Sunday having travelled through Los Angeles before he heads out onto the field at a different Canterbury some twelve thousand miles away.”

“I’ve got a few days to be ready and I’m sure I will be fine.”

Play gets underway at 11am on Sunday with a bumper crowd set to attend the first home day of the season for Kent Cricket.