From this post it seems below will be your answer
Private Sub listView_ItemCreated(sender As Object, e As ListViewItemEventArgs)
' exit if we have already selected an item; This is mainly helpful for
' postbacks, and will also serve to stop processing once we've found our
' key; Optionally we could remove the ItemCreated event from the ListView
' here instead of just returning.
If listView.SelectedIndex > -1 Then
Return
End If
Dim item As ListViewDataItem = TryCast(e.Item, ListViewDataItem)
' check to see if the item is the one we want to select (arbitrary) just return true if you want it selected
If DoSelectDataItem(item) = True Then
' setting the SelectedIndex is all we really need to do unless
' we want to change the template the item will use to render;
listView.SelectedIndex = item.DisplayIndex
If listView.SelectedItemTemplate IsNot Nothing Then
' Unfortunately ListView has already a selected a template to use;
' so clear that out
e.Item.Controls.Clear()
' intantiate the SelectedItemTemplate in our item;
' ListView will DataBind it for us later after ItemCreated has finished!
listView.SelectedItemTemplate.InstantiateIn(e.Item)
End If
End If
End Sub
Private Function DoSelectDataItem(item As ListViewDataItem) As Boolean
Return item.DisplayIndex = 0
' selects the first item in the list (this is just an example after all; keeping it simple :D )
End Function