Mohammed Shami's brother reveals how seamer kept national duty above everything else

New Delhi: Star Indian pacer Mohammed Shami received a saddening news on Friday after his father, Tousif Ali, passed away following a heart attack. Tousif was recently admitted in a Delhi hospital after suffering a cardiac arrest.

While Shami, himself, chose to stay away from media, his brother expressed how the Indian seamer opted to fulfill national duty during his father's worsening health issues.

Shami's brother, Asif was quoted saying by Sportskeeda, "He wasn’t well in Moradabad for a long time, then we had to shift to Delhi for his treatment. Bhai came once back in January itself before leaving for Bengaluru. Certain members of the family asked him to stay, but he replied that India is as much of a father to him and he couldn’t deny that duty either."

"He was very emotional, but decided to go back to training, knowing that his recovery ahead of the Australia series is paramount for the national team’s plan there. Now, I know that he’s going to give his best performance till date in his next series.”

"I’m sure he must be thinking in his head that he could have stayed back, but he made the right decision. Abbu really respected his profession, and would’ve asked him to do the same. Cricket was in his blood, he was a huge fan of Wasim Akram, and I think that rubbed off on bhai during his younger years. We will all really miss the calming influence he had in all our lives especially bhai’s, when he used to get stressed," Asif concluded.

Shami's commitment towards the service of his nation needs no further example. He truly is a role model for all of those aspiring cricketers.

Shami's father was earlier in news after he extended his support to son and his wife, who were a target of social media bigotry.