Melbourne: Following their series defeat at home against India, Australia suffered a major blow as star pacer Josh Hazlewood has been ruled out of their upcoming two-Test series against Sri Lanka with a back injury. 

Young pacer Jhye Richardson, who made Virat Kohli his bunny in the recently-concluded ODI series, has been included to the squad.

But Cricket Australia physiotherapist David Beakley said he was confident Hazlewood would recover in time for the World Cup in England and Wales.

"Josh has reported some back soreness over the last few days and scans have revealed a very early stage stress fracture in the same lower back area as his previous injury from last summer," he said on the Cricket Australia website.

"He will now begin a rehabilitation program and we are confident he will be available for selection ahead of the ICC Cricket World Cup in the UK later this year." 

Richardson, who has impressed in the one-day series against India, joins Mitchell Starc, Pat Cummins and Peter Siddle as the pace attack in the squad to face Sri Lanka.

The first Test -- a day-nighter -- starts next Thursday in Brisbane, with the second in Canberra.

"Jhye has had an impressive first half in his Sheffield Shield season and no-one could deny he has now continued that form in ODI matches for Australia," said national selector Trevor Hohns.

"We consider Jhye to be an ideal replacement in the squad for Josh." 

Revised Australia squad: Joe Burns, Pat Cummins, Marcus Harris, Travis Head, Usman Khawaja, Marnus Labuschagne, Nathan Lyon, Tim Paine (capt), Will Pucovski, Matt Renshaw, Jhye Richardson, Mitchell Starc, Peter Siddle.

With inputs from PTI