Hot and cold Pakistan hard to predict
Sharjah - Pakistan are the kind of team who make it virtually impossible for journalists to write about with much authority. As a result, their game against South Africa on Friday is extremely difficult to call.
At their best Pakistan are capable of the flamboyance and exuberant intuition of the best teams in the world, but at their worst they look like a team riddled with internal strife, a motley crew of individuals who just happen to be wearing the same coloured clothing.
"As I said before leaving Pakistan I don't want to make any big claims because then you burden yourself with a big load of expectations, something I certainly don't want to do," said new captain Moin Khan on arrival in Sharjah.
Potential
"But one thing that I do want to stress is that we'll try to play to our potential, a thing which has been elusive to us thus far. Our opponents here - India and South Africa - have peaked at the right time and we are in the process of recovering from a series of defeats."
This is Pakistani code for saying sweet nothing but saying it extremely diplomatically. It might be of more consequence to look at exactly who is here and exactly who isn't and then to unpack the teams' relative strengths and possible weaknesses.
Neither Saeed Anwar, the classy left-handed opener, nor Azhar Mahmood, the all-rounder, nor Saqlain Mushtaq, the off-spinner, are here in Sharjah.
Wasim Akram is here, however, as are Shoaib Akhtar, Waqar Younis and Abdur Razzak - the quartet of quicks. The presence of this gang of four - particularly on a pitch which offers something to the seamers - is of concern to the South African coach, Graham Ford, who sees the Pakistani bowling as their primary strength.
"They certainly have a very useful attack so they're going to be able to create a lot of pressure with the ball," said Ford. "And because they have that gang of seamers their batsmen are used to facing guys with a bit of zip, so that will also be of benefit to them."
Ford might have added the name of Shoaib Malik, apparently a Saqlain pretender, to the list of bowlers, but he preferred instead to hint that the Pakistani batting, with players such as Salim Malik and Ijaz Ahmed long in the wilderness, might just be their weak spot.
Shahid Afridi, Wajhatullah Wasti, Inzamam-ul-Haq and Yousuf Youhanna will in all likelihood provide the spine of the batting, with captain Khan coming in the lower middle-order to bolster the scoring rate with his hefty blows across the line when the occasion demands.
As for South Africa, on Thursday their senior players had "compulsory rest" according to Ford, with the others players, such as Dale Benkenstein, Pieter Strydom, Nantie Hayward and Charl Willoughby - who arrived in Sharjah on Wednesday - having a mid-morning net. Ford was pleased with many aspects of South Africa's performance on Wednesday night against India but was particularly chuffed with the sound advice of his captain and the contribution made by the back-up seamers - Steve Elworthy and Makhaya Ntini.
He praised Ntini for his ability to bowl "wicket-taking deliveries" and said of Elworthy: "It's tough in India, bowling on those kind of wickets but he established a psychological, advantage over the Indians early and bowled very well. We've always rated Steve highly."