Romario Shepherd

A bowling allrounder, Romario Shepherd started for Guyana in domestic cricket with the List A format in 2016 and then first-class in 2017. But his hard-hitting batting as a finisher has instead helped him become a T20 specialist.

And like most modern West Indies players, Shepherd has played in multiple T20 leagues around the world - like the CPL, IPL, SA20, BPL and MLC. Most notably, playing for Mumbai Indians (MI) in IPL 2024, he bashed Anrich Nortje for 32 runs in a single over, including four sixes and two fours.

Shepherd, who made his T20 debut in CPL 2018 for Guyana Amazon Warriors, began with batting in the lower order, from where he plundered runs in a hurry. He bowled at a considerable pace too, and found success with the ball in the next CPL.

Shepherd's ODI debut followed in late 2019, and the T20I debut came in January 2020. But his breakthrough tournament was the CPL in 2021, where he bagged 18 wickets at an economy of 7.69, and smashed 109 runs at a strike rate of 165 as a finisher.

However, in international cricket, Shepherd showed the first glimpses of his powers with the bat in his 11th T20I, when he hit 44* off 28 balls against England in January 2022. The fact that the IPL mega auction was only the next month helped, as Shepherd was bought by Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) for the 2022 edition.

His attacking cameos continued in 2023, with back-to-back impactful innings against South Africa, and a strike rate of 235 while scoring 113 runs in the CPL. But in the IPL, Shepherd had moved from SRH to Lucknow Super Giants for the 2023 edition, and finally to MI ahead of 2024.