Latham's name has been whispered as a "comer" on the national scene for the last year or so. It was more a question of when, not if, he would get a call-up.
New Zealand coach John Wright almost inadvertently slipped Latham's name into a shortlist of batsmen, along with Martin Guptill, Kane Williamson and Dean Brownlie, as batsmen who could be the backbone of the national side in the next few seasons.
Latham, son of former test and ODI player Rod Latham, called his selection "a dream come true".
"The first person I called was dad. He was on the golf course. He was as proud as punch. He couldn't stop texting me about how proud he was," Latham said.
"It's been a pretty unbelievable couple of days, but a nice feeling."
A New Zealand Youth international in 2009-10, Latham has played nine Plunket Shield games for Canterbury, and 10 one-dayers, averaging 50 with a strike rate of 96. Wright likes his numbers, and those would appeal.
Rod Latham played alongside Wright during the 1992 World Cup, and didn't do things by halves.
Tom, who was born just after that tournament, has heard of the father's belligerent batting style and suspects he's slightly different.
Andrew Ellis is also in the ODI squad for the first time, and is a big fan of his 10-years younger Canterbury team mate.
"He's a fantastic young kid," hard-hitting allrounder Ellis said.
"He's testament to a lot of work put in by people in Canterbury and himself, mainly because he works very hard, he's got a good head on his shoulders and has good stats behind him."
It was a chilly day in Dunedin yesterday. One wonders how Zimbabwe will cope with a testing climate, on top of playing techniques which proved woefully inadequate in their innings and 301-run test loss in Napier last weekend.
Their one success story with the bat, Regis Chakabva, who scored a gritty 63 in Zimbabwe's second innings, after coming in at a distinctly unpromising 12 for five, knows his countrymen are better than they showed in Napier.
"We weren't under that much pressure to do well, we knew it wouldn't be easy but we were aware of the situation and what we needed to," he said. "We just didn't do well."
Certainly a nice touch of understatement but Zimbabwe's reputation has always been of being a better ODI than test side.
Zimbabwe have had five days to prepare for Dunedin, instead of the scheduled three. All manner of elements have been worked on, Chakabva said, including "one-day cricketing skills" to "getting our minds ready".
Pride is important for the Zimbabweans. They have much lost ground to make up from Napier.
"We will be more competitive," Chakabva said. "We are working hard and we want to represent our country well."
