West Indies National Cricket Team all-rounder Romariao Shepherd named two Indian batters whom he found hardest to bowl against after the IPL 2026, and ahead of the IPL 2027 season. The Caribbean all-rounder, who is currently playing in the CPL 2026 franchise league for the Amazon Warriors, expressed his experience playing alongside the Indian batting maestro Virat Kohli.
Romario Shepherd mentioned his Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) teammate Virat Kohli, and the former Mumbai Indians (MI) captain Rohit Sharma as the two toughest batters to bowl. Shepherd also named his national side teammate Sai Hope among the most challenging batters.
Romario Shepherd explains Virat Kohli as a teammate
Amid the Caribbean Premier League’s 2026 season, the all-rounder, who helped the Royal Challengers Bengaluru win their maiden IPL trophy in 2025 and then, in 2026, successfully defend the title, explained how it felt to have Virat Kohli as a teammate.
According to the all-rounder, it was always great to have Virat as a teammate, as the batter was always up to share his thoughts and points of view in the dressing room. So, players used to get a lot of insights from him.
“It’s good (playing with Kohli) because you get a lot of insight into how someone as great as him thinks. He shares a lot in the dressing room, so it’s always fantastic whenever he’s around,” Romariao Shepherd said in a video.
Important stats to Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma’s batting
Kohli was the centrepiece of the squad in both the 2025 and 2026 seasons. In 2025, he scored 657 runs from 15 matches at an average of 54.75 and a strike rate of 144.71, with eight half-centuries. And in the following season, the former captain of RCB got 675 runs from 16 games at an average of 56.25 and a strike rate of 165.84, with a hundred and five half-centuries.
Talking about his batting numbers for the India National Cricket Team, Virat has scored 28359 runs from 562 matches at an average of 52.71 with 85 hundreds and 148 half-centuries.
On the other side, Rohit Sharma, who captained Men in Blue to win the 2024 T20 World Cup, has so far collected 20427 runs from 514 games across formats at an average of 42.46, with 51 hundreds and 112 half-centuries.
Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli are likely to be in line for 2027 ODI World Cup
Both Rohit and Virat have retired from the T20Is and Tests, and are currently active only in the One Day International format. Both of the batters are well past their primes, nearing their 40s, but are still delivering for the Indian cricket team. Ahead of the next ODI World Cup, which will be in 2027, Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli are both in form and are in contention to be in the squad for the upcoming 50-over World Cup.
Romario Shepherd’s CPL 2026 is, however, not up to the mark, as the all-rounder has scored 56 runs from four innings at a strike rate of 164.70, and with the ball, he has claimed seven wickets from nine innings at an average of 25.42 and an economy rate of 9.98.