The elite club which R Ashwin has gate-crashed

Partab Ramchand

It is the quintessential all round performance.

Taking five wickets in an innings and scoring a century in a Test match is a rare feat - it has been performed only 27 times in over 2000 matches. And it is this double feat that underlines the utility qualities of a cricketer.

Predictably enough, many of the greatest names in the game's history figure in the list. Surprisingly, however, the line-up does not include some of the most famous all rounders like Wilfred Rhodes, Trevor Bailey, Trevor Goddard, Alan Davidson, Richard Hadlee, Kapil Dev, Chris Cairns, Shuan Pollock and Andrew Flintoff.

The latest to join the rather elite club is Ravichandran Ashwin - perhaps the most surprising entry of all.

South Africa's Jimmy Sinclair set the ball rolling at Cape Town in 1899 by becoming the first to accomplish the feat. He was followed by another South African Aubrey Faulkner who also did the double against England in 1910.

Over the last century it has remained a rare feat but there are players from eight countries in the list and only cricketers from Sri Lanka and Bangladesh have failed to make it.

Image: Kapil Dev is one of the many great names who do not belong to the club

Images: AFP/AP