Searing Dubai heat, a fresh squad of players of whom he knew no one, and no time to breathe. That's how Kaushal Silva's tenure as Hong Kong's head coach began two weeks ago.
The former Sri Lanka opener had barely been able to shake off jetlag before he was thrown into the thick of preparations for the Asia Cup. Within hours of arrival, he went straight into planning sessions, centre-wicket practice, and match simulations.
"It's been a baptism by fire," Silva, 39, tells ESPNcricinfo. "I haven't even been to Hong Kong yet. I flew straight from Melbourne [where he lives] to Dubai for our preparatory tour before the tournament.
"The players had already been training back home, and my assistant Andrew [Lloyd] and I were coordinating over the phone to finalise combinations and training plans. Once we got here, it was about getting straight to work."
The work, as Silva describes it, has been less about endless batting and bowling drills, and more about mastering the smaller yet crucial details. His first priority was to get the players outdoors, playing on big grounds and on turf pitches - which they hadn't been able to do for over two months at home due to non-availability of grounds and rains.
"The shift from indoor to outdoor cricket is massive," Silva says. "We were lucky to have excellent facilities here and to spend time on centre-wicket pitches. It's those little things that help players polish their game."
After retiring from international cricket in 2019, Silva emigrated to Australia and stumbled into coaching almost by chance. Former Hong Kong coach Trent Johnston encouraged him to combine playing with coaching at club level at Victoria, and Silva jumped at the opportunity.
That same year, he completed his Level 3 course at the ICC Academy in Dubai. He calls that moment a "turning point" in how he viewed the game.
In Australia, Silva designed grassroots programmes and even ran his own academy while working his way into Victoria's district and state set-ups with both boys' and girls' pathway players. Most recently, he headed the cricket program at a leading private school while continuing to coach a premier-division team.
When the Hong Kong job came along just over a month ago, he saw it as a new challenge, and the perfect opportunity to blend his experiences as a player and coach to build something meaningful for an emerging cricket nation. Coming from Sri Lanka and Australia, where international and first-class cricketers have year-round access to high-performance centres, masseurs, physios and coaches, Silva has now begun to experience firsthand the challenges of working with an Associate team.
"You don't have the same resources," he says. "Sometimes you only get training at certain times of day, and often only indoors. But that's the reality. We can't let it become an excuse."
Instead, he has challenged his players to - as the cliche goes - control the controllables.
"If we want to go on a journey to regain ODI status [Hong Kong lost it in 2018, soon after that year's Asia Cup], we have to change our mindset," he explains. "No one is going to hand us anything. We prepare with what we have, and we prepare as best as we can. That's the message I want these players to believe."
That belief has started to translate into performances. Hong Kong have played four practice games on this tour, winning two of them. Silva's message has been about playing what he calls fearless but smart cricket.
"I don't want recklessness," he says. "I want them to think 'how do we use the bigger boundaries', 'how do we hit into pockets', 'how do we convert ones into twos?' These are small adjustments, but they can make a big difference.
"These aren't things they're used to being challenged [on], because in Hong Kong, a simple chip over the infield is a boundary. There's no concept of running twos. It's either singles or fours. These may seem like small things, but it's massive."
Given how little time there has been between his appointment and this Asia Cup, Silva has prioritised building relationships. He has already had one-on-one chats with every player in the 20-man prep squad - it was pruned to 17 on Sunday - to understand their backgrounds, their motivations, and their training habits.
"This tournament is my chance to observe them in pressure situations," Silva says. "How they react to others' success, how they respond when the heat is on. All that helps me figure out how to support them better."
Some of Silva's philosophy on coaching has been absorbed from Sri Lanka's coaches during his playing career - Trevor Bayliss, Paul Farbrace and Stuart Law.
"As a player, I used to think they weren't telling us much," he says. "But now I understand. Sometimes, too much information can be a problem. First, you have to understand the person. Only then can you guide them."
That people-first approach, he believes, will be key to Hong Kong's progress.
"Managing personalities is everything," he says. "How I get the best out of one player might be completely different to how I get the best out of another. That's my strength and that's what I'm still figuring out with this group."
At the Asia Cup, Hong Kong play their first two games within three days, against Afghanistan and Bangladesh. Then there's the inevitable storyline: Silva coaching against the country he represented at the highest level, on September 15.
"Of course it's exciting," he says. "But for us, it's just another game. From day one, I told the boys: we are here to compete, not just to make up the numbers."
That belief, Silva says, will define Hong Kong's campaign. "Whoever makes fewer errors wins the game. It's as simple as that. And that can be anyone, including us."