In his teenage years, Mohammed Shami, a devoted learner, used to reach his training venue one-hour earlier. He would then set up his own nets and practice vigorously for hours.Interestingly, all the three real brothers of Shami aspired to become fast bowlers in their childhood.Shami owes his success to his father Tousif Ali. According to him, his father was the only person who realised his true potential as a bowler and persuaded him to give the sport a try.After having a glimpse of Shamis potential, his father immediately took him to the local cricket coach named Badruddin Siddique. In an interview, Badruddin narrated, When I first saw him bowling at the nets as a 15-year-old kid, I knew this boy is not ordinary. So I decided to train him. For one year I prepared him for the UP trials, as we dont have club cricket over here. He was very co-operative, very regular and very hard working. He never took a day off from training. During the under 19 trials he bowled really well, but due to politics, he missed out on selection. They asked me to bring him next year, but at that moment I didnt want Shami to miss one year. So I advised his parents to send him to Kolkata..While in Kolkata, Shami started playing for the Dalhousie Athletic Club, where he was noticed by Debabrata Das, former assistant secretary of the Cricket Association of Bengal. Impressed with Shamis bowling, he then drafted Shami in his own team named Town Club for a sum of INR 75,000. Das said that at that time in 2005, Shami had no place to stay in Kolkata, so Shami took temporary refuge in his house.At the 2014 IPL auctions, he was selected by Delhi for a huge sum of INR 4.25 crore.Shami is often regarded as a reverse swing specialist. This art is not a result of luck but of years of hard work; he used to take old red balls from the organisers of junior-level tournaments and then shine them on one side. He then practiced with these old red balls, with shine on one side to get the required reverse swing.When Shami debuted for India, he was known as Shami Ahmed, but later it was noted that his original name is Mohammed Shami. In an interview with a newspaper, Shami revealed this by saying, I dont know how my name got that tail. Im Mohammed Shami, not Shami Ahmed..