He spoke about his early cricket experiences, his inspiration from Dwayne Bravo, his breakthrough in white-ball cricket, and his life inside the RCB dressing room.

Named after football legend Romario, Shepherd recounted his first cricket memories, which involved using improvised equipment. “I used to play cricket in a small opening in my yard. Sometimes we made the ball with wood or used coconut branches to make a bat,” he said. “Whenever the ball hit your shin, there were no pads because we were barefoot, so you had to defend your foot.”

Shepherd began playing organised cricket during his school years and was initially not known for powerful hitting. “In the first game I played, I scored 129 and batted through the 40 overs, with no sixes. At that time, I was not a big hitter. All I knew was to find the gaps,” he explained.

As he advanced through age-group cricket, Shepherd developed into a multi-dimensional player, influenced by the West Indies great Dwayne Bravo. “Whenever you listened to the radio, there was always one name you heard doing everything, batting, bowling and fielding, and that was Dwayne Bravo,” he said. “I wanted to be like that guy.”

His white-ball cricket breakthrough came in 2018 during the Caribbean Premier League, which brought him wider recognition. “2018 is when people started taking my white-ball cricket seriously,” Shepherd noted. “I started bowling a lot of yorkers and hitting the ball, and commentators like Ian Bishop were saying this kid has something about him.”

One significant moment that season involved facing Dwayne Bravo, his childhood idol. “The first ball I faced was from Dwayne Bravo and I hit it for six ways back in the crowd,” Shepherd recalled. “That was big for me because he was someone I looked up to.”

Shepherd’s journey ultimately led him to the IPL and Royal Challengers Bengaluru. “When I was watching cricket growing up, RCB was always one of the teams West Indians supported because Chris Gayle was on that team,” he said.

Discussing his experience within the franchise, Shepherd praised the team environment. “Everyone knows TD (Tim David) is my guy. Salt, Bethell, even VK, I did not know he was this funny,” he said with a smile. “You see Virat Kohli on the cricket field, and he is so intense, but off the field, he is actually a very funny guy.”

He also highlighted the impact of senior players and the positive squad atmosphere. “These guys make me happy, especially when you are away from home for so long,” Shepherd said. “It is an unbelievable group of guys, both on and off the cricket field. RCB is blessed to have senior players mixed with younger players in one dressing room.”

Shepherd reflected on the global connection he experiences while representing RCB. “RCB gave me a chance and the opportunity to go out there and represent one of the biggest franchises in the IPL,” he stated. “It changes the way people follow you.”

“Even when I am playing for West Indies in other parts of the world, people are still chanting ‘RCB, RCB’,” he added. “When you walk out to represent RCB, you realise it is more than just a franchise. It feels like a family.”