“It’s a pretty disappointing batting performance,” Hesson said after the game. “I don’t think there’s any shying away from that. It wasn’t just the youngsters, we were exposed against some good bowling and we went into our shell a little bit, and we have to turn things around really quickly.”

The game was dominated by one of the greatest ODI performances by a Bangladesh fast bowler. Rana, who first made his name during his heroics on flat wickets in Pakistan in a Test series the visitors won 2-0, had played just five ODIs until today. When he was brought on in the tenth over, Pakistan were yet to lose a wicket. But he would double his ODI wickets tally inside five overs, striking in each of the first five overs to spectacularly derail Pakistan’s innings.

Hesson, who memorably – and to Bangladesh’s chagrin – was critical of the slow, turning wickets Bangladesh prepared during Pakistan’s visit for a T20 series last July, conceded there was nothing wrong this time around, and heaped praise on Rana.

“The wicket was fine,” he said. “It played pretty well. Nahid Rana was exceptional. Until he came into the game, we were ticking along okay, and he changed the game. He bowled into the wicket, created some variation and bounce, which he’s allowed to do when he’s bowling at that pace. And we didn’t respond as well as we needed to. So all credit to him.”

But it was one that, today, at least, backfired sharply. The four batters combined for a total of 49 runs, with Shamyl Hussain in particular looking particularly uncomfortable against Rana’s pace. He was dropped once in a forgettable seven-ball innings, which ended when ill judgment caused him to lash at a short ball from Rana straight up to the keeper.

Hesson defended the young players, as well as the decision to select them. “Youngsters have got to learn. It wasn’t just the youngsters [who struggled]. All of us need to stand up and put in a better performance with the bat and we’re certainly going to try and do that in games 2 and 3.”

With Pakistan opting against selecting Haris Rauf, they did not have anyone in their line-up to match Rana’s raw pace. Hesson dismissed the idea that Pakistan struggled at dealing with the extra speed, but defended his bowlers even if, in his view, they “went searching”.

“You face that pace all the time,” he said of Rana. “He bowled in good areas, he was aggressive, he bowled good bouncers. He deserved what he got.

“When you’re defending a well below par total, even if you want to be disciplined and create pressure, you do go searching a little bit. And I think there’s no doubt we went searching with the ball. We weren’t able to execute as many balls as we wanted to. You can play with a bit of freedom when you’re chasing a score like that. All in all, it was a poor day’s work and one we’re going to have to turn around really quickly.

“Youngsters have got to learn. You’ve got to give them opportunities to learn and grow. We would love them to run out and score a hundred on debut but they have to go through some tough challenges. We have to show some resilience over the next few days and fight well in the next game.

“We’re looking forward to the next match. There’s a bit of reflection to do on today’s performance. I don’t think we’ll underestimate that we were poor and we were exposed with the bat.”