Australia’s batting group has two more Tests before year’s end to turn the tide on a hundred drought that could become the team’s most significant this century.

Yet Pat Cummins believes the signs are there that his two most experienced batters, Steve Smith and Usman Khawaja, are well placed for big runs in the third Test, beginning Saturday in Brisbane.

Smith (24 innings) and Khawaja (27) are both enduring their longest spells without a Test century, with the usually prolific pair each last reaching the milestone during the first half of the 2023 Ashes.

Their malaise is illustrative of a wider issue in the Australia batting group. Aside from the COVID-affected year of 2020 (when they played just three Tests), there hasn’t been a single calendar year this century that Australian batters have posted so few individual hundreds; in seven matches, only Travis Head (twice) and the injured Cameron Green have reached three figures.

With two matches still to play, the figure to beat is four – that’s how many Australia managed in 10 Tests through 2018, during which star pair Smith and David Warner were unavailable for the final six matches following the ball-tampering scandal.

This year’s tally of three in seven Tests equates to one every 2.33 matches, whereas from 2000-23, Australian batters averaged 1.31 hundreds per Test.

On the eve of the Gabba Test, Cummins seemed unconcerned by the form lines of his senior pair.

“If you look at (Smith’s) record, stats would suggest (a big score) is not far around the corner,” he said. “He’s looking fantastic in the nets, looking really sharp, like he’s got plenty of time. He got caught down leg-side in the last game, I don’t think you can look too much into that … I think a big score is just around the corner.”

On Khawaja, who has eight first-class hundreds at the Gabba and scored his maiden Test century at the Gabba nine years ago, he was equally positive.

“I think similar to Smithy in some ways, he’s looking fantastic in the nets, and last week in Adelaide he looked really sharp,” he said. “He did a lot of that hard work on that first night – it was tricky, brand-new ball under lights with fresh bowlers.

“Obviously like most of the guys he’d be wanting to score a few more runs, but I think he’s looking really good … and he loves batting at the Gabba, he knows it really well.”

Speaking with cricket.com.au this week, Smith pointed to statistical trends suggesting Test batting in Australia has become more difficult in the past five years or so compared with the five before that. And with that in mind, he said an important contribution doesn’t necessarily have to mean a three-figure one.

“I don’t think on the wickets that we’re playing on currently, you’re going to see too many scores in the first innings of 400-plus, or even 300-plus at times,” he said. “They’re pretty challenging wickets where a good 70 or a good 60 is the difference.”

“Just because you’re not scoring big hundreds, you’re still contributing if you’re getting 50 or 60, whether it’s a quick 50 or 60, like ‘Heady’ (Travis Head), or a slower burn 50 – but still applying pressure – like Marnus (Labuschagne) or myself.”

The 35-year-old said he felt well placed to find form at the venue where he made his highest score of this lean run – an unbeaten fourth-innings 91 in a nail-biting loss to West Indies in January.

“Particularly those couple of one-day games against Pakistan (last month), I was moving really nicely, I felt really good, and in the nets since then I’ve felt good,” he said.

“I guess just the couple of innings so far, I haven’t really been able to get in. I got a couple of nice balls in Perth … and then got strangled down the leg side (in Adelaide).

“But no, I actually feel like I’m hitting the ball really nicely. I’m moving nicely, implementing a few different plans thinking about the way they’re trying to attack me, I suppose, and I’m feeling good.”

NRMA Insurance Men’s Test Series v India

First Test: India won by 295 runs

Second Test: Australia won by 10 wickets

Third Test: December 14-18: The Gabba, Brisbane, 11.20am AEDT

Fourth Test: December 26-30: MCG, Melbourne, 10.30am AEDT

Fifth Test: January 3-7: SCG, Sydney, 10.30am AEDT

Australia squad: Pat Cummins (c), Sean Abbott, Scott Boland, Alex Carey (wk), Brendan Doggett, Josh Hazlewood, Travis Head, Josh Inglis, Usman Khawaja, Marnus Labuschagne, Nathan Lyon, Mitch Marsh, Nathan McSweeney, Steve Smith, Mitchell Starc, Beau Webster

India squad: Rohit Sharma (c), Jasprit Bumrah (vc), Yashasvi Jaiswal, KL Rahul, Abhimanyu Easwaran, Devdutt Padikkal, Shubman Gill, Virat Kohli, Rishabh Pant, Sarfaraz Khan, Dhruv Jurel, Ravichandran Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Mohammed Siraj, Akash Deep, Prasidh Krishna, Harshit Rana, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Washington Sundar. Reserves: Mukesh Kumar, Navdeep Saini, Khaleel Ahmed, Yash Dayal