It wasn't one shot, a score or minutes at the crease that has Adam Gilchrist thinking he might have turned the corner in his battle to get out of his current form slump.

Instead Australia's wicketkeeper has taken the fact he unconsciously upped his own scoring rate to help his team's cause in the drawn first Test against South Africa as a welcome sign he might have put the worst of his first career slump behind him.

Gilchrist made a slick 44 from 58 balls in Australia's second innings at the WACA Ground before holing out in the deep, and was pleased to find himself more focused on his side's pending declaration than his own threadbare summer with the bat.

"I initially went in there to just try and get started and build an innings, but then the game scenario crept into my mind and I wanted to try and push it along a little bit quickly to enable us to declare at some stage," Gilchrist said on Thursday, ahead of the second Test starting Boxing Day, at the MCG.

"I guess if I'm thinking like that, it means I'm thinking more natural like I do when I'm playing well."

Gilchrist's title as Australia's middle order talisman has lost a little of its lustre this year, as he has only twice passed 50 and averaged 29 in his past 17 Test innings since his last century, in the second Test against New Zealand in Wellington, in March.

The left-hander's career average during that spell, which included his disappointing Ashes tour, dropped by almost five runs, from 55.65 to 50.84.

It also left him low on confidence.

"You do get a little bit down," he said.

"Probably your confidence drops a little bit when you miss out a few times and I had done that in the previous few Test matches, and in (the one-day games in) New Zealand I missed out too.

"So it had been a little while since I'd made any significant score, so you've just got to keep believing.

"I haven't broken through with a big one yet, but it feels like it's going in the right direction."

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