Hampshire target 2022 Ashes Test match for Ageas Bowl

The Ageas Bowl missed out on an Ashes Test match for the 2019 series

Hampshire chairman Rod Bransgrove hopes the Ageas Bowl's growing reputation for hosting international matches will secure an Ashes Test in 2022.

Sunday's one-day international between England and New Zealand at the venue near Southampton was a 17,500 sell-out.

The England and Wales Cricket Board has invited tenders for the allocation of major matches between 2020 and 2023.

"Our major ambition for the future is to secure an Ashes Test match in 2022," Bransgrove told BBC Radio Solent.

"We're getting better and better at hosting these matches and we're at the stage where we're now as good, if not better, than many of the grounds in this country.

The Ageas Bowl is the only Test ground in the country not to have staged an Ashes match, with Old Trafford and Edgbaston preferred for 2019, a decision which at the time, Bransgrove said nearly forced him to rethink his position.

A £38.5m revamp including a four-star hotel, conferencing and hospitality facilities and new media centre was completed last month.

"I believe the new administration at the ECB will be very fair and indiscriminate in the way they select international grounds in the future," Bransgrove added.

"We want and deserve more international cricket and when we show our credentials the way we have for this ODI, it's going to be a very compelling case in the future.

"We regard every international day as an audition and we're auditioning better and better.

The Ageas Bowl has hosted two Test matches since it opened in 2001, against Sri Lanka in 2011 and India in 2014.