The side veers wildly between stellar and abysmal performances, so there's no telling what South African fans will see in the coming weeks.

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Listen to this article 8 min Listen to this article 8 min The Pakistan cricket team arrives this week for a South African tour that includes three T20 Internationals, three One-Day Internationals (ODIs) and two Tests.

The question for the Proteas and fans alike will be: which Pakistan will show up? Throughout their 72-year cricketing history, the Pakistanis have been the most bipolar of sporting sides, swinging between the imperious and the awful.

This is their recent track record: swept 2-0 in a home Test series in October by Bangladesh (who were then trounced in their own backyard by the Proteas).

They then conceded a single innings of 823 runs while losing the first Test at home against England, before dropping their three best-known players and demolishing the Bazball visitors in the next two Tests on the back of a 38-year-old left-arm spinner called Noman Ali.

Then they went to Australia and won an ODI series there for the first time in 22 years before getting belted 3-0 in the T20I series.

Currently, they are spending a fortnight in Bulawayo, where they have experienced mixed fortunes in white-ball games against Zimbabwe.

In this period, they have demoted their Test coach,...