I want to be a good allrounder: Southee

Dubai: Twenty-year-old Tim Southee is New Zealand's rising star. He made his Test debut against England last year with a deadly spell of 5 for 55 and cracked an unbeaten 77 off 40 balls in the second innings.

He was also the second highest wicket-taker in the Under-19 World Cup last year and bagged the player of the tournament award.

Southee, who bowls a good pace, is keen for more success. He wants to be known as an all-rounder and is working hard on his batting. "I guess lot of work has to be done as I too would like to come and whack around a bit. I want to be a lot more consistent with my batting."

Southee wants to improve his batting like his skipper Daniel Vettori strengthened his recently.

"I want to get as far as I can in my batting like Dan [Vettori] did with his batting during the last few years. He has been outstanding. I need to work hard on my batting and see how far it will take me. However, I will keep working on it," he said.

New Zealand are here without a coach but Southee hasn't felt the absence. "It has been business as usual for us. Dan and the support staff have been pretty great and we stepped up when needed [to] and we had a great run. It was nice to win a one-day series away from home. We will carry the confidence from the one-day series victory into the Twenty20 games," he said.

Southee cherishes his experience as an under-19 player. "I played a lot at the under-19 level and it is a bit of a step up. It was nice to play with the best players in the world of the same age group. It gave me a lot of confidence," he said.

The youngster is thankful to his seniors for their support. "Kyle [Mills] bowls several things and he is great to watch and learn [from] during practice."