DUBAI (Agencies) - Pakistan team's assistant coach Ijaz Ahmed plays a dual role. He sharpens the batting skills and has also taken up the task of improving their fielding skills following his team's poor fielding in the first Test in Abu Dhabi which deprived them of an easy victory. Ahmed, who has played many stupendous knocks at the Sharjah Cricket Stadium, worked tirelessly for the last two days. Speaking to Gulf News after a hard day's work out, Ahmed, said: "Fitness is the key to being a good fielder. Though I am not the fielding coach of the team and look after the batting, it was decided to sharpen our fielding. Most of the time our wicket keepers used to drop catches and our fielders hardly dropped so many catches. I think the heat in Abu Dhabi played a big role in it. It should be noted that most of our boys are around the age of 33 to 34 and it must have been hard to cope five days." Ahmed who played in 60 Test matches and 250 One-dayers say that to win matches one has to give 100 per cent on the field. "Fielding is a matter of flexes and if reflexes go down it is always hard to take the catches. We took all the catches in the first innings of the Abu Dhabi Test but in the second innings the boys were a bit tired. For the last two days we worked hard on sharpening our reflexes and I am sure we will not repeat the mistakes we committed in the first Test," added Ahmed. , who believes that a sense of humour is a must in coaching. "Fitness and a sense of humour go hand in hand in coaching. Humour helps the players ease out the tension. It makes players relax. Gone are the days when coaches had to be always strict with the boys," said Ahmed, who proved to be one of Pakistan's finest No.3 batsmen. He was also quick on the field, especially in the covers and ended up taking 45 catches in Tests and 90 catches in One-dayers.