Phillips was born in South Africa and moved to New Zealand at the age of five.[4] He was educated at Sacred Heart College where he played cricket.[5] He made his List A debut on 24 January 2015 in the Ford Trophy.[6]
Phillips made his Twenty20 debut on 4 December 2016 in the 2016–17 Super Smash against the Otago Volts, making 55 off 32 deliveries opening the batting.[7] He was the highest run-scorer in the Super Smash, with 369 runs. He scored his first century (116 not out) in the final regular season match against Central Districts where the Stags won by Duckworth-Lewis. He became the second domestic player since Hamish Marshall to score centuries in all three forms of the game, with Phillips being the first to do so within a single domestic season.[8][9][10]
In February 2022, he was bought by the Sunrisers Hyderabad in the auction for the 2022 Indian Premier League tournament.[20] In April 2022, Phillips was re-signed by Gloucestershire for the 2022 T20 Blast in England.[21] In April 2022, Phillips signed to play for Otago for the 2022–23 domestic season in New Zealand.[22] He joined younger brother Dale at Otago and stated his desire to become a genuine all-rounder under coach Dion Ebrahim. As he secured a central New Zealand cricket contract in May 2022, his deal did not contribute to the Otago retainer salary bill.[23]
International career
In February 2017, Phillips was added to New Zealand's Twenty20 International (T20I) squad for their series against South Africa, after Martin Guptill was ruled out due to injury.[24] He made his debut during the series[25] and in October was named in the One Day International (ODI) squad against India. He did not play in the ODI series,[26] but did play in the second and third T20Is of the series and retained his place in the side against the West Indian and Pakistani teams which toured New Zealand later in the season.[27]
Phillips played more Twenty20 Internationals later in the year, although he then dropped out of the New Zealand team, not playing at all in 2019. In January 2020 he was flown to Sydney ahead of New Zealand's third Test match on their tour of Australia as cover for Kane Williamson and Henry Nicholls who were ill.[28] With neither player able to take part in the match, Phillips made his Test debut, top-scoring in New Zealand's first innings with 52 runs.[29] He came back into New Zealand's T20I side in November 2020, the first T20I series involving the side after the COVID-19 pandemic had led to most of their scheduled matches during the year being cancelled. In the second match against the West Indies he scored his first century in T20I cricket. The innings, in which Phillips scored 108 runs, saw him reach his century in 46 balls, setting a new record for the fastest century by a New Zealand batsman in a Twenty20 International match.[30][31][32]
More T20I appearances followed, and in May 2021 Phillips was awarded his first central contract by New Zealand Cricket.[33] In August he was named in the squad for the 2021 ICC Men's T20 World Cup,[34] playing in each of the team's matches in the competition and scoring a total of 105 runs as New Zealand reached the final.[27] The following June he was named in New Zealand's ODI and T20I squads for their tours of Ireland, Scotland and the Netherlands.[35] He made his ODI debut on 10 July 2022 against Ireland[36] and went on to play in each ODI and all but one of the T20I matches on the tour.[27]
Later in 2022, Phillips was part of New Zealand's squad for the 2022 ICC Men's T20 World Cup in Australia. He scored his second Twenty20 International century against Sri Lanka, making a score of 104 in the team's second group game of the competition. He finished the World Cup as the side's leading run scorer with 201 runs; as well as his century he scored 62 against England in the group stage.[27] The following year saw Phillips named in the squad for the 2023 Cricket World Cup in India.[37] He played in all of the team's matches during the competition, scoring 285 runs as New Zealand reached the semi-final.[27]
Following the World Cup, Phillips was selected in New Zealand's Test squad for the tour of Bangladesh.[38] He played in both Test matches, his first Tests since his debut in early 2020. In the first match he took four wickets in the first innings, his first in Test cricket, and another in the second,[39][40] and in the second Test made scores of 87 and 40 not out and took another three wickets.[41][42] He retained his place in the Test side for the tours by South Africa and Australia in 2023–24 and played in all three T20Is against Bangladesh and all five against Pakistan, scoring 70 not out from 52 balls in the fourth match against Pakistan as part of a match-winning partnership of 139 runs with Daryl Mitchell.[27][43]
