Amar Singh (cricketer) - Cricketing Style

Cricketing Style

Amar Singh was a tall man; standing at over six feet and two inches, Amar Singh used this height advantage to great effect. He was wiry and broad shouldered. Though not really fast, Amar Singh used his height to extract bounce and movement off the pitch. He was said to have had a clean action, and generated lots of energy from a run-up of a little more than a dozen yards. This was the reason why English conditions suited him well. Amar Singh was also said to have had the ability to exploit the new ball well, making it swing both the ways, and when the shine was off, his "his devastating breakback often penetrated the defense of well set batsmen, castling them comprehensively".

One reason for Amar Singh's high amount of wickets was that he bowled with an aggressive field setting and more importantly, he aimed at the stumps while bowling. His field settings generally consisted of two or three slips, a gully, a cover point, and third man on the off side. On the leg side he usually had a short fine leg, a forward short leg, a silly mid-on and a long leg. He maintained this field against all batsmen.

Amar Singh's batting was more or less as much as aggressive as his bowling. He was a pinch-hitter, who was effective on some occasions. Surprisingly, Amar Singh was shifted up the batting order. He was also made to play in the top five positions three times; but, also scored four scores above forty. In the summer of his first test match, Amar Singh hit an unbeaten 131, against Lancashire, coming at no.10, a position from which he had scored his 51 against England in his first test match.

In the light of his bowling performances, another aspect of his game that had been overshadowed along with his batting was Singh's fielding an catching. In 92 first class matches, Singh snaffled 77 catches, and according to Rusi Modi, he was easily as good as Bob Simpson or Wally Hammond in terms of slip catching. However, it is highly debatable whether India's other fielders were as good, as it is reported that many edges of Nissar's and Singh's bowling were dropped.