A. Singh

Amritsar Govindsingh Kripal Singh was born in Madras, now Chennai, in India in 1933. Kripal Singh is from a family of famous cricketers with his father, A. G. Ram Singh, brother, Milkha Singh as a test cricketer and a nephew, another brother as well as two sons playing class cricket in India. Singh was not just an attacking batsman but also a very useful right armed off-spinner.

Singh played a total of 96 first-class matches and 14 test matches during his career. He scored a total of 4,939 runs in first-class cricket with a batting average of 40.81. His batting average for test matches was 28.13. Singh made a top score of 100 runs in test matches and 208 runs in first-class matches.

While his batting averages were running strong, Singh was also an exceptionally good bowler with his bowling averages as 58.40 for test matches and 28.41 for first-class matches. Singh displayed his finest bowling in first-class matches by taking 6 wickets for 14 runs. His best bowling figured for test matches were 3 wickets for 43 runs.

In 1959, Kripal went toured with his teammates to England and hit 178 runs against Lancashire. However, after a minuscule effort of 41 runs in the first test, he suffered from a finger injury which limited his role on-field but the selectors still picked him up for forthcoming tests. Kripal took his debut test cricket wicket in a match against England in 1961-62 after having bowled 588 balls. Record books state that no other bowler has taken as many balls as Kripal to claim their first victim.

While playing for India in test matches, Kripal fell in love with a Christian girl and converted himself to marry her. He is thus the first player to have represented two religions. After his retirement from playing cricket, Kripal choose to be a national selector for India. He passed away in 1987 following a cardiac arrest at home grounds in Madras (Chennai), Tamil Nadu in India.

Career Highlights

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