Know Tom Latham, a young Kiwi superstar in the making

New Delhi: Hitting a ton in a test match is always a big achievement for every cricketer but if he creates a record with that, then it becomes more memorable.Tom Latham, a 22 year old latest sensation in New Zealand cricket team popularly known as the “Blackcaps”, followed his maiden century in first test against Pakistan with another century in second and thus became the first Kiwi batsman in 24 years to record the feat.Born on April 2, 1992, Thomas William Maxwell Latham aka Tom Latham is the son of the former New Zealand all-rounder Rod Latham. He is primarily a wicket-keeper batsman and of-course an aggressive opener but he has never been behind the wickets at international level.Tom first came on to the scene when he was selected to take part in the Under 19 World Cup in 2010 as the team's wicketkeeper. Later that year he continued to make waves by making his debut for the Canterbury Wizards.After just a handful of performances Latham had shown he had huge potential, particularly in the shorter formats of the game. In January 2012 he scored his maiden century in the Ford Trophy.This was followed up with a call-up to the BLACKCAPS ODI squad to play against Zimbabwe.He managed to score 24 runs on his ODI debut and went on scoring 48 in the second one. He made his T20I debut against the West Indies on 30 July, 2012 and didn't have promising debut here as well.His highest score in the ODI series was a very disappointing 32. He was recalled against Bangladesh where he played a bright innings of 43 while opening, and then went on scoring a match-winning 86 off 68 balls.He made his test debut during India tour of New Zealand in February 2014, but only managed to score 29 runs in both innings.Later in the month of June, when New Zealand toured West Indies he had a hugely successful test series with the bat, scoring 3 half-centuries and 288 runs over the three tests, finishing second in the top series run scorers, just behind his teammate Kane Williamson.In doing this,he helped his side to a rare overseas series victory. By July, he became the opening batsman for Tests after a poor run form of Hamish Rutherford and Peter Fulton, that also led to them losing their central contracts for 2014–15 season.He scored his maiden test century in the first test against Pakistan of the ongoing New Zealand tour of UAE on 11th November 2014.After a disastrous bowling show by the bowlers, the Kiwi batsman failed too but one man who became a headache for Pak bowlers was Tom Latham.Fighting alone with Pakistan, he scored 103 off 222 balls and led his side to get past the total of 250 in the first innings.After having a target of 480 runs, the Kiwi batsmen failed again but this time Latham could not perform and scored a mere 20. The visitors thus lost by a big margin of 248 runs.He then followed his maiden ton with another supreme knock of 137 off 269 balls in the first innings of Second test and gave a promising start to the visitors.It was the first time in 24 years that a kiwi batsman has scored two centuries in consecutive test matches. His brilliant innings and late blows by the tailenders helped the team setup a big total of 403 runs in the innings.He first had a 77 run opening stand with Brendon McCullum which was followed by another 76 run partnership with Kane Williamson.The Blackcaps by the time were in a dominant position, with Latham looking more and more comfortable at the crease and the score was edging towards 200.He setup a third consecutive half-century partnership with Ross Taylor for third wicket after getting to his record second century in 192 balls. Not long after the third wicket, Corey Anderson was the next man to go back to pavilion but Latham was still steady at the crease.But he could not last longer and was caught behind by Sarfraz Ahmed in the very next over by Rahat Ali.After a poor first test match performance, it was a pretty decent turnaround for the Kiwi batsmen after their top order showed plenty of stamina but the point of worry would be form of middle order.Unfortunately he couldn't score much in the second innings and the match drawn.However, after two promising test matches, it can be said that New Zealand have got another batting superstar in the making.