Indians dominated, winning in five out of the 12 categories. The architects of the team's landmark 2-1 win in Australia won the Test batting and bowling awards -
Pujara for his tone-setting, opening-day hundred in Adelaide and
Bumrah for his hostile spell in Melbourne. The closest contenders in those categories were two South Africans: AB de Villiers for his hundred in the win against Australia in Port Elizabeth, and Kagiso Rabada for his 6 for 54 in the same Test.
England were also at the receiving end of the two best limited-overs batting performances:
Ross Taylor's
181 not out, partly scored on an injured leg, in an ODI in Dunedin, and Glenn Maxwell's
103 not out in a T20I in Hobart.
India's Harmanpreet Kaur won the
women's batting award for a second year in a row, this time for her barnstorming century against New Zealand in the World T20.
This is the 12th edition of the ESPNcricinfo Awards, where a jury of former players - among them Ian Chappell, Courtney Walsh, Ramiz Raja, Daryll Cullinan, Ajit Agarkar, Phil Simmons and Mark Nicholas - and ESPNcricinfo's senior editors vote on the best performances in the three men's international formats, and women's and associates cricket in the previous year.
The two awards for year-round performance are the Captain of the Year and the Debutant of the Year. Lanning won - against the likes of Virat Kohli, Faf du Plessis and Joe Root - in
the former category for Australia's series wins in India (against India in bilaterals and India and England in a tri-series), against New Zealand at home, and for clinching their fourth World T20 title.
Previous ESPNcricinfo Awards winners have included Mitchell Johnson, Sachin Tendulkar, Lasith Malinga and Rohit Sharma (three awards apiece), and Dale Steyn, Virender Sehwag, Shahid Afridi, Stuart Broad and Virat Kohli (two each).