Defeat by Oman, in their opening game on Monday, was more of a disappointment than a shock and now all Ireland can do is attempt to win every game in the rest of the group stages, even though their next two games are against teams ranked higher than Oman. Tournament favourites Sri Lanka is Ireland's third game on Sunday.

“There’s always a little bit extra when we play Scotland but there is more than that at stake this time around, it’s about World Cup qualification and we don’t have much margin for error,” said Wilson, although he was reminded of Afghanistan’s stunning performance at the last qualifying tournament, also here in Zimbabwe, in 2018

"Afghanistan actually went through to the Super Six stage with zero points and ended up qualifying by winning the tournament, so the precedent is there but that’s not what we are looking to do, we will be looking to win all our matches. It will be a tough task because there is massive strength in depth in this competition and no-one is safe, but we are confident because we have a good side and just didn’t show our best against Oman."

Wilson knows the slow bowlers will have to step up to the mark on Wednesday, at what was a more spin-friendly ground in the warm-up matches, and George Dockrell, the only slow bowler to take a wicket against Oman, had to admit they were below-par on Monday.

“We were too loose and gave away too many boundary balls, their skipper took the positive option straight away and put the bowlers under pressure, so we know we have to more tighter in the next game,” he said.

Not for the first time in recent matches, too many batsmen got in and then got out – four were dismissed in the 20s – and it needed a now almost traditional half century from Harry Tector and an Ireland career best of 91 not out from Dockrell to get Ireland up to what should have been a winning total if they had bowled anywhere up to standard.

Josh Little, who took two wickets at the start of his second and third spells with good short balls, was the only positive cited by Wilson after the match but the whole camp know that only an improved performance will be good enough to down the Scots in what is their opening game of the tournament.

At least there is another precedent there. When the teams met at the Harare Sports Club five years ago, Ireland won by 25 runs, after scoring 271 for nine with Andrew Balbirnie hitting a century. What the team would give for even a half-century from the struggling captain this time. That would really lay down a marker.