Abdul Rehman named Pakistan head coach for Afghanistan series, Arthur still 'work in progress'.

KARACHI -- While Mickey Arthur's appointment as the Pakistan head coach remains 'work in progress', the country's cricket board has entrusted the responsibility to a local success story in Abdul Rehman.

Arthur is all but certain to take up the role eventually as Dawn understands, but not before Pakistan's three-match Twenty20 International series against Afghanistan two weeks later, with the Pakistan Cricket Board announcing Rehman's appointment as the team's head coach for the assignment on Tuesday.

According to sources, Arthur's availability - physical or remote - and that of what will be his handpicked support staff, are factors still under 'direct' discussion between the South African himself and the PCB's interim Management Committee chairman Najam Sethi.

In any case. Rehman is deserving of the job given his stellar record in the domestic circuit. It was under him as head coach that Khyber Pakhtunkhwa trumped the conventional power centres of cricket in Karachi and Punjab to emerge as force to reckon with in the last five to six years.

After winning consecutive National T20 Cup titles with Peshawar Panthers in 2015 and 2016, Rehman led Peshawar Zalmi to their maiden HBL Pakistan Super League title in 2017 as their assistant coach.

As head coach, Rehman led Khyber Pakhtunkhwa to two National T20 Cup...