"Steve Smith surprised me with his strength"- Chris Hemsworth’s trainer

Luke Zocchi, the personal trainer of Hollywood superstar Chris Hemsworth, spoke positively about Steve Smith, spilling beans on the week-long ‘torture session’ that the Australian batsman completed in Bryon Bay (766 km north of Sydney), New South Wales, before the start of a hectic cricket schedule last year.

In July 2020, Smith travelled to Bryon Bay for a week-long workout with Zocchi before a jam-packed cricket tour commenced with the limited-overs tour of England, followed by the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2020 and India's tour of Australia.

Smith surprised the celebrity trainer with his strength and Zocchi was quoted as saying,

“Not to diss cricketers, but I think I went into it thinking he would be nowhere near as fit or strong as what he was.

“And he’s bloody focused and determined. I put him through some hard sessions, and he blew me away actually how athletic he was, to be honest. I was really surprised how strong he was.

“He had me covered in cardio.

“We were doing some crazy assault bike and rowing sessions, and he had me in the later stages of these hour-long workouts.”

Steve Smith can’t stay away from batting

It’s known to cricket fans that Steve Smith loves to bat and how he gets his wife Dani Willis to feed balls to the bowling machine even in the wee hours.

For Zocchi, this comes as a surprise as he regularly witnessed Smith practising his batting in between sets. He said,

“In between a hectic chest workout, while he was having his rest, I could see out the corner of my eye he was playing cricket shots.”

Steve Smith’s batting slump

Recently awarded with the Test cricketer of the decade accolade, Smith has hit a batting slump in the four-Test series (Border-Gavaskar Trophy) against India. The former Australian skipper has managed just ten runs from the two Tests, falling to off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin twice.

With the series tied at 1-1, the third Test begins on Thursday at the Sydney Cricket Ground (SCG) - Smith’s home ground where he has scored 611 runs in seven Tests, averaging 67.9.