Cricket News: Why is Cricket Pakistan in turmoil despite the country's abundance of talent? 

They can still make it to the semis but will need to win their remaining three matches by a massive margin and hope that other results go their way. 

Given their talent, it is quite frankly stunning that they are in a position whereby they rely on other teams to do them a favour. 

Yet inconsistency is the name of the game of this current Pakistan side. When they win, they'll do so in the most spectacular fashion. 

They will dispatch teams by ten wickets or win close matches in the final over. And if they lose, they will either be hammered or lose close encounters. 

The latter has been their state in the first two World Cup matches; the losses to India and Zimbabwe were close affairs and will doubtless leave the team and their fans disappointed. 

Yet this needs to be explained why exactly they are struggling as much as they are. 

Firstly, it's worth noting that the side's two most reliable performers – Muhammad Rizwan and Babar Azam – have not turned up to the party so far. 

It's ironic, but they were seen as the two performers who fans had to least worry about before the tournament. However, their lack of form has cost the team greatly. 

There's also the fact that Shaheen Shah Afridi has not looked like the same bowler who caused so much havoc just a year prior. 

He is still struggling to find his rhythm, which is somewhat understandable, given his massive injury setback and the rehab and recovery he's had to undergo. 

However, his lack of match time before the World Cup is costing the team considerably – the team's strike bowler hasn't come to the party, impacting the rest of the side. 

One must recognize the tactical shortcomings of the side as things stand. Due to their admittedly brittle middle order, the team has looked to stack the batting at the expense of the bowling. 

But even that comes with a clear drawback – they only have five bowling options, which will cost them on days; even one bowler is expensive, just as it did against India. 

To their credit, Pakistan has recently taken steps to fix its shortcomings. They drafted Shan Masood into the T20I scheme of things and, in the last game, brought Mohammad Wasim Jr. into the playing XI as an extra bowling option. 

Yet one gets the feeling that they left this work too late. The team would have looked more settled if all this had been done at least a few months before the tournament. 

Instead, the players coming in are suitable for the job but need time and patience – precisely the kind of thing a tournament like the World Cup doesn't afford. 

Whether or not the team can fix their woes, in the long run, remains to be seen. But they're still struggling mainly because these solutions needed to be brought in earlier.