Phillips played cricket as a wicketkeeper at high school, but concentrated on batting once he started grade cricket. He would occasionally wicket keep and was a reserve wicketkeeper with Australian under-age teams, but soon established himself as a specialist batsman.

He made his first class debut during the 1977–78 season, when the state sides had been depleted due to World Series Cricket. Over the summer he played three Sheffield Shield matches and a single one-day match as a middle-order batsman, with a top score of 22.

Phillips did not play first class cricket again until the 1980–81 season, when he was picked for South Australia's last match of the Sheffield Shield. He made the most of his opportunity, scoring 111 and 91 as an opener against Victoria.

Established in South Australian side

Phillips established himself as an opening batsman over the 1981–82 season, scoring 857 first class runs at an average of 47.61, forming a strong opening combination with Rick Darling and making an important contribution to South Australia winning the Sheffield Shield that summer.

He scored a century against the visiting Pakistan side and 260 against Queensland – the first double century from a South Australian batsman in ten years.

These results saw Phillips selected in the Australian squad to tour Pakistan that winter as a batsman and reserve keeper.

Pakistan Tour 1982–83: International Debut

There was a spot open in the Australian batting line up as Greg Chappell was not touring. Phillips was in competition with Greg Ritchie.

A score of 92 in a tour game against the Pakistan Invitation XI saw Phillips selected to make his one-day international debut in the final match of that series. Unfortunately the game was called off due to a riot.

1982/83 Season

Phillips scored consistently throughout the 1982–83 season, scoring 680 runs at an average of 37.77. He scored centuries against New South Wales and Tasmania but was unable to break into the test team. There was an opener vacancy after Graeme Wood was dropped but the spot was given to Kepler Wessels.

Nonetheless, Phillips remained on the radar of Australian selectors. He was picked as 12th man for the 3rd test, and selected in a Young Australian side to tour Zimbabwe in early 1983 as a wicketkeeper batsman. The highlight of this tour for Phillips was scoring 135 in a one-day game. After this success, commentators started talking about Phillips as a possible Australian wicketkeeper.

1983–84: Test Debut against Pakistan

Phillips was picked as opener for the first test against Pakistan during the 1983–84 summer and scored 159 in the first innings. He played for the rest of the series, ending with 362 runs at an average of 60.33, and was selected for the 1984 tour of the West Indies. During the summer he was also picked as wicketkeeper for some one day games for South Australia, which led to further calls for him to play in this position for Australia.

1983–84 Tour of West Indies: Wicketkeeper

Rod Marsh had retired as Australia's wicketkeeper at the end of the 1983–84 season and it was expected his replacement would be Roger Woolley, who kept wicket for the first two tour games. However, the selectors were unhappy with Woolley's fo