Not so long ago, the chance to represent a country in Test cricket was the undisputed pinnacle of a player’s career. In recent months, as torrents of money have flowed into Twenty20 cricket, fears have been raised that the primacy of Test cricket could be threatened and that possibility came a step closer yesterday when Mahendra Singh Dhoni, India’s charismatic wicketkeeper-batsman, opted out of his country’s Test series against Sri Lanka, starting this month.

As India’s one-day captain, Dhoni will play in the series of five 50-over matches that follow, but the fact that he has opted to skip the Test series to rest his weary limbs may be seen as a sign of the changing times.

With his film-star features and blockbuster batting, Dhoni, 27, has come to be seen as a figurehead for the Twenty20 revolution. The first time he captained his country, he led them to victory in the inaugural ICC World Twenty20 in South Africa last year, the tournament that opened Indian eyes to the possibilities offered by the 20-over game. That success led to the creation of the Indian Premier League (IPL), in which Dhoni was the most highly prized commodity at the player auction, attracting a bid of £1.5 million (about £770,000) from Chennai Super Kings.

But as Dhoni’s bank balance has been rising, his fuel levels have been running low. During the recent Asia Cup in Pakistan, he complained about the tournament’s intensive schedule, and now he has told India’s authorities that he needs a break. “In India and the sub-continent in general, we have a full year of cricket and there’s no off-season,” he said. “It’s tough for cricketers. When we want a rest, we should get it.”

Burnout is a source of growing concern for international players. Sympathy for their plight can be tested when they choose to fill spare weeks in their schedule playing in lucrative Twenty20 tournaments, but there can be little doubt that the ever-expanding schedule threatens to dilute the quality of international cricket. In the past year, Dhoni has been committed for 108 days of international cricket, including 39 one-day matches, which is well above the ICC’s recommended limit to its member countries of 30 a year.

Something had to give and Dhoni, after 16 IPL matches in six weeks and nine one-day internationals in the past month, has chosen to sacrifice Test cricket. Michael Vaughan and Paul Collingwood, England’s captains, have both warned recently that the five-day format could suffer in the long term as players coming into the game hone their skills for Twenty20 cricket.

Yesterday, Ricky Ponting, the Australia captain, suggested that a tournament-style Test world championship could help to buck the trend. “At the moment, Test cricket is probably not in its healthiest state, but what a Test championship would do is make sure that every Test you play has a lot riding on it,” he said. “A few 50-over games will make way for 20-over cricket, but I’d hate to see it touch Test cricket.”

The ECB will hope that similar burnout does not affect England’s leading players this time next year, when the Ashes series is due to start on July 8. Players such as Kevin Pietersen and Andrew Flintoff are likely to be involved in the second season of the IPL next April, between England’s tour to the West Indies, which finishes on April 4, and the home series against Sri Lanka starting on May 7, after it was confirmed yesterday that they would replace Zimbabwe. Ian Smith, the legal director of the Professional Cricketers’ Association, said: “It’s very likely that there will be some England players in the IPL next season. We’ve got a lot of offers.”

It would be unthinkable for England players to miss an Ashes Test if they felt in need of a break, but Dhoni’s decision has shown that Test cricket is already slipping down the list of some players’ priorities.