Keeping or rotating the strike means batters attempting to control which batter faces deliveries (ie is bowled at). This could be to disrupt the opponents or to make sure a better batter faces more deliveries than their less skilled partner.
The rules on who faces each delivery are simple: the player at the striking end always faces, and the striking end changes back and forth each over. These simple rules have two important effects for tactics of changing the strike (ie changing which batter faces):
- After each of the first five balls of the over, the strike will only change if the batters have run an odd number of runs (usually one or three.)
- After the final ball of the over, the strike will change unless the batters have run an odd number of runs.
Rotating the strike means the batters playing with a goal of regularly changing which player is facing. This could be through intentionally choosing which shots to play and when to run. To a lesser extent, it could mean not worrying about the strike when deciding shots and running, which will mean the strike naturally changes more frequently.
Rotating the strike can disrupt a bowler as they may be using different tactics against batters with different skills. It can also disrupt momentum such as building up confidence through repeated dot balls (where the batter doesn’t score) or tactics such as using the same delivery repeatedly and then changing it to catch the batter by surprise.
Arguably the ultimate use of rotating the strike is when one batter is lefthanded and one righthanded. This means fielders will usually have to relocate every time the strike changes. This can be physically and mentally draining. Some teams will deliberately set or adjust their batting order to have such a pair of batters.
Keeping the strike is used when one batter is much better than the other, for example when a specialist batter is partnered with a tailender such as a specialist bowler. The idea is that having the better batter face more balls will both increase the scoring rate and decrease the chances of losing a wicket. Which of these is more important may depend on how many wickets are lost, what score the team is on, and how long is left in the game.
One of the most famous recent examples of keeping the strike was in the 2019 England v Australia Test at Headingley in 2019. Ben Stokes, a skilled batter, was partnered with the last remaining England player, Jack Leach, a specialist bowler, with England needing 73 runs to win. While Leach was not incompetent at batting, there was still a significant chance whenever he was on strike that he would be dismissed. This was particularly dramatic as losing a wicket would not only lose the game, but also make it impossible for England to win the series and regain The Ashes trophy.
The pair adopted a deliberate tactic to keep the strike. For the first four balls of the over, Stokes would hit the ball hard, hoping to either score a boundary or have enough time to be certain of running two runs. They would pass up even easy opportunities to run a single run as this would put Leach on strike.
For the fifth ball Stokes would try to score a single, the ideal outcome being that he got it and Leach would face the final ball, play defensively to avoid being dismissed, and then Stokes would be back on strike for the new over. If the single didn’t come off, Stokes would again try for a single on the final ball of the over.
Attempting the single on the fifth ball rather than waiting for the sixth ball was a calculated risk. The idea was that it was safer in the long run to potentially have Leach face a single ball each over, than to put everything on the sixth ball and risk Leach having to start the over on strike. This would have meant facing six balls unless he was able to score a run.
England went on to win. To show how well the strike was rotated during this partnership, Stokes faced 62 balls and scored 74 while Leach faced just 17 balls and scored one run.