Steve Smith feeling 'strong and ready' ahead of World Test Championship final

The Baggy Greens take on the Proteas in the pinnacle of Test cricket at Lord's on 11 June and Smith took a rather unorthodox approach to his preparation for the big game.

Instead of participating in the Indian Premier League or playing in County Cricket to acclimate to English conditions, like most of his teammates, Smith went to New York for a specialised fitness regimen with a new trainer.

According to Smith, he did not even touch a cricket bat for the entire period, which is completely contrary to his usual approach.

"I'd normally have a bat laying around the house somewhere and just pick it up and do a bit of shadow batting and stuff," he said, according to ESPNcricinfo. "But I made a conscious decision to try and just let it go for a while. It was good.

"I hadn't hit a ball since I missed a full toss off Mohammed Shami in the Champions Trophy. Fortunately, everything sort of clicked into place immediately. I feel like I'm moving really well, I feel strong and just ready to get into it now.

"Normally how it works is my first hit's good, my second hit's awful, and then I'd get better from there. But both hits were just really good and I was like, hopefully it doesn't turn around now and I don't have to spend hours in the nets the next couple of days."

Reports out of the Australia camp suggest the break has done him very well with Smith looking very sharp in the nets and the former Australia captain says he has never felt this strong or fit before and believes his new physique will help him be a better slip fielder.

Australia was probably happy to let Smith go to the USA and leave his bat at home due to his unbelievable record in Test cricket in England, batting at an average of 55 overall and 58.33 at Lord's in particular.

"I play a lot of backfoot shots here, I don't tend to get too far forward to the ball. I try and score really square of the wicket," he said.

"It kind of just suits me in a way. Hopefully can kick off where I left off the last couple of Tests that we played [in Sri Lanka]."