Umrigar played mainly as a middle-order batsman but also bowled occasional medium pace and off spin.

[2] In 1998, he received the C. K. Nayudu Lifetime Achievement Award, the highest honour the Indian cricket board can bestow on a former player.

[4][2] He made his first class debut for Parsis at the age of 18 in the Bombay Pentangular in 1944, and studied for a BSc at St Xavier's College.

This performance brought him to national attention, and earned him a single appearance in the 2nd Test against the same team in Bombay seven weeks later.

He made more than 800 runs in May and double hundreds against Oxford University, Lancashire and Kent, but seemed to struggle against the fast bowler Cuan McCarthy[9] of Cambridge.

While facing Fred Trueman, time and again he backed away towards square leg and "(held) the bat out to each ball, missing it like a beginner".

He scored a hundred at Manchester in his next meeting with Trueman in 1959; he topped the aggregate for India in all his three series against West Indies who at various times had Frank King, Wes Hall, Roy Gilchrist and Charlie Stayers.

He returned to form against Pakistan at home in 1952–53, and scored 560 runs in West Indies in early 1953 with two hundreds and four fifties.

Umrigar was again picked as captain for the fourth Test at Madras, but a confusion developed about the replacements for Ghulam Ahmed and Vijay Manjrekar, who was injured.

He scored three double hundreds in tour matches, the 252* against Cambridge University was then the highest by an Indian abroad.

Umrigar's off-spin played a significant supporting role to Jasu Patel in India's first win over Australia at Kanpur in 1959–60, but his batting remained below par, and he missed the last two Tests in the series with a back injury.

His chronic back trouble made him announce his retirement from Test cricket after he returned home.

[22] An attacking player especially strong in front of the wicket, he was capable of destroying anything short of extreme pace.

[24] From the early 1940s, Indian cricket had been dominated by the Merchant-Hazare school of batsmanship which put stress on preserving one's wicket.

At Bahawalpur he only bowled about six overs "at the maximum pace that he was capable of, which would be about Ramchand's" (the wickets were taken in later spells), according to Sujit Mukherjee.

In 59 Ranji matches, for Bombay and Gujarat, he scored 4102 runs with fifteen hundreds at an average of 70.72 and 140 wickets.

Umrigar was the manager of Indian touring sides to New Zealand, West Indies and Australia in the late 1970s.

He wrote a book on cricket coaching and, for a time, he was the curator of the pitch at the Wankhede Stadium.