He would be worried if he did not have such confidence in the New Zealand domestic set-up.
Latham spent last week in Dunedin playing for Canterbury against Otago in a Plunket Shield match at the University Oval.
He got some valuable time in the middle before the test series against the West Indies, which gets under way in Christchurch today.
Matt Henry will spearhead a Black Caps attack that could also include Jacob Duffy (Otago), Zak Foulkes (Canterbury) and Blair Tickner (Central Districts).
Duffy and Foulkes made their test debuts this year, while Tickner played the last of his three tests in March 2023.
When it comes to test level, the trio are green.
Latham will have no hesitation tossing the ball to any of them, though.
Duffy and Tickner are experienced first-class campaigners, and Foulkes took nine for 75 in his first test — the best by a New Zealander on debut.
"Even though they haven’t played a huge amount of red-ball cricket for New Zealand, they’ve played enough white-ball cricket to know what the standard is," Latham said.
"Yes, it’s a different format, but I think they understand their games a little bit more from a first-class point of view in New Zealand.
"We’ve seen the likes of Zak and Duff and what they have been able to do when they get opportunities. And Tics has been fantastic as well over the last couple of months.
"So you know those guys are in some good form, which is great."
Tickner nabbed eight wickets in two ODIs against England early last month and has played 90 first-class games.
Duffy was the player of the series in the recent T20s against the West Indies and is the No2-ranked T20 bowler in the world.
The 31-year-old has played 109 first-class games.
Green is not a description that fits either player.
Foulkes has not been around as long, but he has forged a very good record.
He has 70 first-class wickets at an average of 25.60.
The 23-year-old gets plenty of swing out of his unusual action. Left-handers, in particular, find him an enormous challenge.
"They certainly put their hands up when they get a chance, which I guess is all you want from a squad point of view," Latham said.
The Black Caps posted a 3-1 win in the T20 series against the West Indies and won the one-day series 3-0.
New Zealand will be firm favourites in the test series. They have won eight of the past 10 games between the sides.
The Windies had a 10-wicket win at home in 2014, and there was a draw in Dunedin in 2013.
"You look at their one-day squad and the test squad, and it’s reasonably similar. There’s not a huge amount of personnel changes," Latham said when asked if the Black Caps could take the momentum from the limited-overs games into the test series.
"You get used to facing certain guys and get an understanding of what they’re trying to do.
"Hopefully we can take a little bit of confidence from the last couple of weeks against the West Indies and take that into what’s going to be a great test series."
First test
Christchurch, today
New Zealand: Tom Latham (captain), Devon Conway, Kane Williamson, Rachin Ravindra, Daryl Mitchell, Tom Blundell, Mitchell Santner, Zak Foulkes, Matt Henry, Jacob Duffy, Blair Tickner, Nathan Smith, Will Young, Michael Bracewell.
West Indies: Roston Chase (captain), Alick Athanaze, John Campbell, Tagenarine Chanderpaul, Brandon King, Tevin Imlach, Shai Hope, Justin Greaves, Kavem Hodge, Johann Layne, Jomel Warrican, Anderson Phillip, Kemar Roach, Jayden Seales, Ojay Shields.
