Pakistan have named Abdur Rehman as interim head coach and Umar Gul as bowling coach for the three-match T20I series against Afghanistan. Mohammad Yousuf and Abdul Majeed will continue as batting coach and fielding coach, respectively. Rehman is a seasoned coach in the domestic set-up with more than a decade's experience and is among renowned talent scouts in the northern part of the country. He has worked as head coach with several domestic teams, most recently with Southern Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, and presently is with Multan Sultans as assistant coach in the PSL. He also worked with Pakistan Under-19 during Bangladesh's tour of Multan in November last year.
Pakistan have been without a head coach since Saqlain Mushtaq's contract expired in December last year. There was an attempt made to rope in Mickey Arthur, who has previously served as the head coach during Sethi's previous stint as the PCB chairperson. However, due to his commitment with English County Derbyshire, he was unavailable for a full-time role. PCB is yet to clarify the exact nature of the role he is playing with the Pakistan men's team. For the Afghanistan series, Pakistan have rested many of their first-choice players, including Babar Azam, Mohammad Rizwan, Shaheen Shah Afridi, Fakhar Zaman and Haris Rauf. Imad Wasim and Faheem Ashraf have been recalled, while Shadab Khan has been named captain, and star PSL 2023 performers Saim Ayub and Ihsanullah have all received call-ups to the national team for the first time. Pakistan will be flying to Dubai on March 22 with the first T20I to be played on March 24, followed by two back-to-back games on March 26 and 27. This will the first instance of the two sides meeting in a bilateral series, and all games will be played in Sharjah.
