• Selector has two-hour discussion with dropped batsman • ‘We are looking at having the right players for right conditions’

Ed Smith is looking to create a pool of England Test players who can offer a range of options both home and away as he offered a more detailed explanation of the decision to drop Dawid Malan.

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The national selector spent two hours with Malan on Wednesday discussing the reasons for the 30‑year‑old batsman’s omission from the second Test against India here. The first day was washed out without a ball bowled or the toss taking place.

Malan, who has been replaced by the 20-year-old Ollie Pope, averaged 27 from 15 Tests but showed significant competence on the bouncier pitches of Australia during the Ashes defeat, top-scoring for England and hitting a fine maiden century in Perth.

England’s official squad announcement on Sunday included the eyebrow-raising line from Smith that “it may be that his game is better suited to overseas conditions”. But the national selector insists this should be taken as a source of encouragement, rather than a slight, with squads in future set to be more tailored towards individual abilities.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Two pitch invaders dive on the covers as rain forces the abandonment of the first day’s play at Lord’s. Photograph: Tom Jenkins/Guardian

Smith said: “It’s very important that when a player is left out he feels he has the opportunity to have a full and frank conversation – that to me is more important than someone misinterpreting half a sentence [in a press release]. We had that.

“I spent a couple of hours with him face to face and the message is very simple: he has had a full calendar year of Test cricket and he knows where he is at. He has shown he can play very well at Test level with that excellent 140 at Perth.

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“Moving forward we talked about how his strengths could come into play but in no way did I mean that line as an implicit criticism. He has scored 10,000 first-class runs in England and shown he can play well on different surfaces.

“But, in an England shirt, one of the things he has done distinctively is play very well in very alien conditions, so I wanted to reaffirm to him that one of the things we are looking at is having the right players for the right conditions, which is not horses for courses. I bridle at that, because you wouldn’t play someone who can only play well at one ground – that is not going to happen. We are not interested in going back to picking one player for one Test.”

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The washout which was confirmed at 4.50pm and left the England and Wales Cricket Board needing to refund around £2m of tickets through its insurance. It was the first such instance at the ground since the visit of Pakistan in 2001.

The remaining four days are scheduled to be 98 overs each with a close of 6.30pm; the lack of a toss means both teams are yet to be named.

England, who lead the series 1-0, must decide between Moeen Ali and Chris Woakes for the No 7 spot, while India are mulling two spinners and could recall Cheteshwar Pujara as they look to shore up a batting order who, bar Virat Kohli, struggled at Edgbaston.