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Until the advent of Sunil Manohar Gavaskar on the scene in 1971, all the main Test batting records for India were held by Pahlanji ‘Polly’ Ratanji Umrigar — most Tests (59), most runs (3,631), most centuries (12) and 35 wickets as well.
But just as Charlie Griffith lived his entire life with the stigma of being called a chucker, Umrigar due to just one series (in England in 1952) and against one bowler, "Fiery” Fred Trueman, had to bear the label of being scared of fast bowling.   
This despite excelling on two tours to West Indies, in 1953 and 1962.  On the first tour of the Caribbean by an Indian team he was the outstanding batsman with 560 runs at 62.22 including two centuries and four 50s.
India did well to lose just one out of five Tests on that tour but when they returned nine years later they suffered a 5-0 whitewash. Umrigar stood out amongst the ruins with 445 runs at 49.44 including one century and three 50s, far above Bapu Nadkarni in second place with 33.71.       
In 1953 his centuries came in the first Test at Port of Spain, Trinidad and the fifth at Kingston, Jamaica with fast bowler Frank King leading the home bowling attack.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In 1962 in what would be his final series, his 172 not out in the fourth Test at Port of Spain was India’s highest in the series and one of only two centuries. It was a memorable match for him even though India were beaten by seven wickets. In West Indies’ first innings he returned figures of 5 for 107, making him only the second Indian after Vinoo Mankad to achieve this double in a Test match.
This time West Indies had in their ranks the formidable Wesley Hall, one of the all-time great fast bowlers, as well as Charlie Stayers, and Garry Sobers who was pretty nippy when bowling pace.
Umrigar also stood up unflinchingly to the thunderbolts hurled by Hall and Roy Gilchrist in the 1958-59 home series. Gilchrist, also known as "The Wild Man of Cricket” was not only one of the fastest of all time but also the most dangerous, making liberal use of the bouncer and beamer during his short and stormy international career. He targeted the batsman’s body more than the stumps and grabbed 26 wickets in four Tests at 16.11, striking terror in the hearts of the Indian batsmen. Umrigar’s creditable average of 42.12 included three 50s.
His statistics against West Indies are pretty impressive — 16 Tests, 1,372 runs, 50.81 average, 100s: 3; 50s: 10, HS (highest score): 172 not out.
That should have buried the myth of his fear of fast bowling for all time. Yet Umrigar’s name will always be linked to Trueman and that disastrous tour of 1952 in which India were well beaten in the first three Tests and only escaped with a draw in the fourth and final due to rain.
It was Trueman’s maiden Test series and he would end his career as arguably England’s greatest fast bowler and one of the fastest too.
The opening Test at Trueman’s home ground at Headingley, Leeds saw Umrigar become the Yorkshireman’s first wicket in the first innings as India totaled a respectable 293 all out. England replied with 334 and the match was evenly poised as India began their second innings.
What unfolded was Indian cricket’s ultimate batting humiliation at least till Lord’s in 1974 when they were skittled out for 42.
In an unprecedented start to an innings, India lost their first four wickets without a run on the board, Trueman grabbing three of them and Alec Bedser one.
Pankaj Roy, Datta Gaekwad, Madhav Mantri and first innings centurion Vijay Manjrekar all fell without opening their accounts and the crowd was in uproar as the giant scoreboard showed 0 for 4 in the space of just 14 balls.
As Manjrekar was bowled by Trueman, captain Len Hutton pointed to the scoreboard. "Take a good look at it,” he urged his players. "You’ll never see another like it in a Test. (Fred Trueman: The Authorised Biography by Chris Waters).” 
Trueman was now on a hat-trick, that too on debut and just missed captain Vijay Hazare’s off stump by a whisker. India limped their way to 165 but the damage to their psyche was profound and they never recovered. 
In the Trueman book Gaekwad recalled the mood of the Indians: "We were shell-shocked. There is no other word for it. To be naught for four in a Test match was incredibly upsetting. We’d been very much in the game until then but Freddie changed all that. He was focusing totally on out-and-out speed. He didn’t have the control of later years but it did not matter. As the wickets went down he was shouting and swearing because that’s how he thought a fast bowler should be. He was making all kinds of elaborate gestures and loving every minute.”    
Umrigar had a miserable series with scores of 8, 9, 5, 14, 4, 3 and 0 — 43 runs at 6.14, four times falling to Trueman.
Interviewed for Anandji Dossa’s Cricket Quarterly in January 1975, Hutton expressed surprise at the manner in which the Indian batsmen capitulated to Trueman: "I was very much surprised in 1952 to see the way that some of your batsmen played Trueman, who I don’t think, was all that fast then. Admittedly he bowled a few short balls and that sort of thing, but I am surprised they didn’t play him better than they did. I wonder if they had a great fear of being hit. I wonder if this was predominant in their minds and they gave me the impression that they were a little scared of Trueman.”          
Following the Leeds trauma, more disaster was to follow in the next Test at Old Trafford. India became the first team in Test history to be dismissed twice in the same day — 58 and 82 with Trueman in the first innings leading the rout with 8 for 31. They would remain his career best figures.
All the Indian batsmen suffered under the onslaught, yet the stigma stayed with Umrigar alone. There is no footage or still photos to corroborate it, nor do the reports in the 1953 edition of Wisden nor any in The Cricketer specifically mention Umrigar retreating to square leg in the face of Trueman’s hostility. But there is no doubt he was visibly intimidated by Trueman’s thunderbolts.
Col Hemu Adhikari was also one among many flops in the series. He was manager of the Indian team on tours to England in 1971 and 1974 and during one of the tours Trueman on meeting him is said to have quipped: "Ah Colonel, I see you have got your color back,” indicating he went pale with fear when facing his bowling in 1952.
Writing in The Sunday Times of India ("Cricket is poetry in motion,” March 17, 1996) Nick Bridge who was then posted in New Delhi as New Zealand’s High Commissioner, recalled his first cricket memory as an eight-year-old — of Umrigar hitting four sixes. It was in the match against Hampshire at Bournemouth in an innings of 165 not out after the Test series had ended and the sun was shining, something very rare. Wrote Bridge: "I remember thinking at the time that it was dreadfully unfair for Indians to have to play in such freezing, miserable conditions. On reflection, the conditions in the Tests in England that year were such that it could be said that India was really the first team to play day/night cricket — without lights.”   
Some of the stories narrated about Umrigar though appear fanciful and exaggerated. Indian and Pakistani batsmen were the butt of jokes back then for their weakness against fast bowling and cruel jokes and harsh comments were directed at them.
Famed umpire Dickie Bird’s My Autobiography is reportedly the highest selling cricket autobiography of all time. He is a known spinner of colorful cricket yarns and the book is full of them.
One of them concerns the Indians’ tour match against Yorkshire at Bramall Lane in 1959 where Bird was 12th man. Bird claims Umrigar was playing a kind of game of hide-and-seek over Trueman’s availability or not for the match as he was taking treatment for an injury; ultimately Trueman played and Umrigar opted out.
In fact neither of them played in the match Bird refers to and Bird also refers to Umrigar as the captain of the touring side when Gaekwad was the captain. Bird says Umrigar was one of the finest players against spin and medium pace but "decidedly ill at ease when faced with anything quicker.”
Yet less than two weeks later Umrigar scored 118 in the third Test at Old Trafford against the bowling of Trueman and Harold Rhodes who was considered the fastest bowler in England at the time. And his exemplary record against West Indies proves he was no slouch against fast bowlers either.      
In an interview to Bhaskeran Thomas for the Tamil Nadu cricket journal Straight Bat, Umrigar offered a somewhat implausible theory for his batting in the 1952 series: "When queried about these ‘exaggerated accounts,’ Umrigar explained that he never evaded a fast bowler. In England those days, wickets were uncovered and after each deluge it was difficult to distinguish the playing strip from the green outfield. Plus the bowlers’ boot marks were like cattle footholds. This encouraged Trueman and Bedser to pitch the ball on these dangerous marks to scare the wits out of the Indian batsmen.  He explicitly stated how he had to come away a bit away from the leg stump in order to hit the ball over extra cover. Unfortunately, he either dragged the ball to the stumps or nudged a catch into the slip fielders’ hands. And that was the reason why his stumps were rearranged, he said.”
Incidentally, Mohammed Azharuddin used the same reasoning after the 1989 tour of West Indies where he and others in the team were accused of backing away from fast bowling. Azharuddin’s reasoning was that it was to make space on the offside and quoted Don Bradman’s example in the 1932-33 Bodyline series to Suresh Menon, journalist and editor of the erstwhile Wisden India. 
Outside the Test series Umrigar had an outstanding tour with 1,688 runs and three double centuries. And there was that century in the Old Trafford Test in 1959 as well.   
While Indian batsmen have often succumbed to fast bowling, the theory that they play spin well is not borne out by the facts.
Right from the first tour to India, by England in 1933-34 in which left-arm spin master Hedley Verity was the leading wicket-taker, Indian batsmen have, both at home and abroad, shown their frailty to the likes of Lance Gibbs (West Indies), Derek Underwood (England), Australia’s Ashley Mallet and Nathan Lyon and Muthiah Muralitharan of Sri Lanka.
Australian leg-spin legend Shane Warne has been a notable failure against India both in Tests and ODIs (one day internationals). But then unheralded spin bowlers like Paul Harris (South Africa), Ray Price (Zimbabwe), Shaun Udal (England) and Michael Clarke (Australia) have also troubled Indian batsmen over the years.    
Coming back to Umrigar, few Indian cricketers have served the game so nobly and selflessly in so many capacities after their playing days both with the Board of Control for Cricket in India and Mumbai Cricket Association MCA. Manager of teams to New Zealand and West Indies in 1975-76 and to Australia in 1977-78, captain Bishan Singh Bedi told this author that Umrigar was "a giant of a man in every sense of the word.” 
Umrigar who passed away in 2006 at the age of 80 was known to one and all as Polly Kaka (paternal uncle). In an affectionate tribute to him in mid-day ("‘All-rounder’ On and Off the Field,” April 25, 2019), Clayton Murzello lauded his administrative achievements including the major role he played in building the Wankhede Stadium in 1974: "Cricket was Umrigar’s oxygen.”