The default index 0 is getting selected in ASP.NET dropdown list after data bind and if I try to set it to -1 its not getting set

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C#

drop-down

ASP.NET4

The provided method is for filling the data in dropdown list. First, the selected index of dropdown is -1 but after Databind() method line, the selected index becomes 0 and first item of the list gets selected by default. I tried to set selected index to -1 or clearSelections, but it's not being set.

If I try to add the first value like select at 0th index. The select item is getting inserted in 0th index, but then the selected index becoming 1 after adding data and again the first item of list is getting selected.

This is the ASP.NET dropdown:

<asp:DropDownList ID="cmbCountry" runat="server" CssClass=" custom-dropdown" AppendDataBoundItems="false" EnableViewState="False" AutoPostBack="true" ViewStateMode="Enabled"></asp:DropDownList>

Below is code behind:

protected void Fill_Country() 
{ 
    DataSet ds = new DataSet();
    ds = FunctionClass.ExecuteStoredProcedure("Fill_CountryName");
    if (ds.Tables.Count > 0) 
    {
        if (ds.Tables[0].Rows.Count > 0) 
        {
            int i =cmbCountry.SelectedIndex;
            cmbCountry.DataSource = ds.Tables[0]; 
            cmbCountry.DataTextField = "Country";
            cmbCountry.DataValueField = "Id"; 
            cmbCountry.DataBind();
            cmbCountry.SelectedIndex = - 1; 
        } 
        else
        {
            cmbCountry.DataSource = null;
            cmbCountry.DataBind();
        } 
    } 
}

What I have tried:

ListItem defaultItem = new ListItem("Select", ""); cmbCountry.Items.Insert(0, defaultItem);

I am calling this function on page load so I checked like this on page_load event:

if (!Page.IsPostBack) { Fill_Country(); }