angular-country-select module not selecting default value - angularjs

Question

I am using angular-country-select module.
I am not able to set the default selected value to the dropdown.
<input country-select data-ng-model="userCtrl.country" class="signup-country" placeholder="Country*" ng-required="true" name="country" id="signUpCountry" value="{{userCtrl.country}}">
I tried to modify the module code to pass the val to select2 (as this module used select2). Below is the modified code:
angular.module('angular-country-select', [])
.directive('countrySelect', [function() {
return {
restrict: 'A',
require:'ngModel',
link: function(scope, elem, attrs, ngModelCtrl) { console.log("elem");
var data = ["id":"AX","text":"Åland Islands"},{"id":"AL","text":"Albania"}, ....]; //This array has values
var defaultValue = attrs.value || '';
ngModelCtrl.$setViewValue(defaultValue);
var select2Inst = elem.select2({
data: data,
val: defaultValue
});
}
};
}]);
But this also does not select the default value.
Any help is appreciated.

Answer 1

I was able to select the default by adding $timeout
Below is updated module code:
angular.module('angular-country-select', [])
.directive('countrySelect', ['$timeout', function($timeout) {
return {
restrict: 'A',
require:'ngModel',
link: function(scope, elem, attrs, ngModelCtrl) { console.log(attrs, attrs.placeholder);
var data = [{"id":"AF","text":"Afghanistan"},{"id":"AX","text":"Åland Islands"},...];
var select2Inst = elem.select2({
data: data
});
$timeout(function() {
if (attrs.value != '') {
ngModelCtrl.$setViewValue(attrs.value);
scope.$apply(select2Inst.select2('val', attrs.value));
}
}, 2000);
}
};
}]);