A wonderful allround cricketer, Umrigar was a stylish batsman, a useful bowler of medium pace outswing and offcut and, on occasion, a dab hand at captaining.

His most memorable innings was one of his earliest - 130 not out in Madras in 1951/52 which helped India to their first Test win against England.

On English soil he was, against county opposition at least, unstoppable, scoring 1,688 runs at 48 on the 1952 tour (including five centuries, three of them double) and more than 800 before the end of May in 1959.

In the Tests, however, he was strangely muted - 43 in four Tests in 1952 and 112 in seven innings in 1959 before scoring a defiant 118 at Old Trafford.

He was for all that one of India's most consistent run-scorers at the time, with a best of 223 against New Zealand in 1955 - at the time India's highest Test score.