Saracens back-rower Andy Christie and London Irish scrum-half Ben White are two of the new faces in the pool.

Rory Darge, Ben Vellacott and Kyle Rowe are also rewarded with call-ups ahead of Scotland's first game of the championship against England at Murrayfield on Saturday, February 5.

"When you look through the squad this is the most competitive I've seen it in so many areas and that's testament to the strength and depth we have," Townsend said.

"We are able to call-up several new players into the squad such as Andy Christie, Kyle Rowe and Ben White. We have been aware of all of the uncapped players for a while now and recently they have all experienced a breakthrough in terms of their performances at club level.

"A key part of the squad selection was rewarding form and that definitely applies to Ben Vellacott and Rory Darge who have been excellent for their clubs this season.

Bath centre Cameron Redpath, who enjoyed a memorable debut against England last year, has recovered from injury and will once again be in contention ahead of the Six Nations opener.

"We're delighted to be able to include Cameron Redpath in the squad after missing the last few months with injury," Townsend added. "He managed to get a game under his belt prior to the squad selection so we'll see how he performs for Bath and in our training over the next couple of weeks."

Ewan Ashman, Jamie Hodgson, Josh Bayliss, Javan Sebastian, Pierre Schoeman, Rufus McLean and Sione Tuipulotu, who all received their first Scotland caps in the recent autumn Tests, are included once again.

Elsewhere, there are call-ups for Edinburgh back-row Magnus Bradbury and prop WP Nel, who missed out on selection for the Autumn Nations, as well as Exeter Chiefs lock Jonny Gray, who also returns.

Northampton centre Rory Hutchinson is included having not featured for Scotland in 2021.

Captain Stuart Hogg is joined by fellow British and Irish Lions Finn Russell, Ali Price, Zander Fagerson, Chris Harris, Rory Sutherland, Duhan van der Merwe and Hamish Watson.

Fraser Brown, Adam Hastings, Sean Maitland and George Horne are among the most notable omissions.

The squad will meet up at Oriam on Monday January 24 for a training camp before reconvening the following week ahead of the Calcutta Cup clash.

Townsend: The bar has to be set high

Townsend feels the array of on-form talent he has had to select from gives him confidence Scotland are equipped to win the tournament for the first time since their Five Nations triumph in 1999.

He said: "In terms of where we are, we believe we have a really strong squad. Competition for places has been excellent and we have a lot of players who are fit. With the players we have and the experiences this group has gone through, this is a big opportunity for us.

"The bar has to be set high. We enter any competition with the goal of winning. We feel the experiences our players have gone through over the last couple of years put them in a good position to know how to win a rugby game.

"More than that, though, the form that our players are in. The competition is really high because the players are in really good form so they should be confident as individuals and within the team.

"We won three games last year and were in the fight for every game we played, but we didn't even finish in the top two so we know how big a challenge it is. It's a good position to be in to know that on our day we can make it tough for anybody but we've got to turn those performances into more wins and play to our potential throughout this tournament."

Scotland squad

Forwards: Ewan Ashman, Josh Bayliss, Jamie Bhatti, Magnus Bradbury, Andy Christie, Scott Cummings, Rory Darge, Matt Fagerson, Zander Fagerson, Grant Gilchrist, Jonny Gray, Nick Haining, Jamie Hodgson, Stuart McInally, WP Nel, Jamie Ritchie, Pierre Schoeman, Javan Sebastian, Sam Skinner, Rory Sutherland, George Turner, Hamish Watson

Backs: Mark Bennett, Darcy Graham, Chris Harris, Stuart Hogg (captain), Rory Hutchinson, Sam Johnson, Blair Kinghorn, Rufus McLean, Ali Price, Cameron Redpath, Kyle Rowe, Finn Russell, Kyle Steyn, Sione Tuipulotu, Duhan van der Merwe, Ben Vellacott, Ben White