LONDON:-Joe Root maintained his case for inclusion in the England team to play New Zealand in the first Test at Lord's next week by scoring 179 for the second-string England Lions in a draw against the tourists at Grace Road on Sunday. Root, the Lions captain, was named Saturday in a 12-man squad for the first of a two-Test series which culminates later this month at the Yorkshire batsman's Headingley home ground. The measure of Root's prolific start to the season was that his six-and-a-quarter-hour 179 was his second lowest score in a tally of 646 runs in four innings. –AFP