Grant Gilchrist will captain an inexperienced Scotland side against Argentina in Cordoba on Friday.

The 23-year-old Edinburgh lock will be playing in his seventh international, having scored a try in last Saturday’s 19-17 win over Canada.

Stuart Hogg, Sean Maitland and Peter Horne also keep their places as 13 new faces joined the tour party this week.

Scrum-half Grayson Hart, lock Jonny Gray and back-row forward Kieran Low all make their first starts.

With scrum-half Greig Laidlaw among those returning home after victories against USA and Canada, Gilchrist becomes Scotland’s youngest captain since Gregor Townsend led the team against Australia 18 years ago.

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“It’s a huge honour, one I’m looking forward to,” said Gilchrist.

“I hope that I can fulfil what it is to be Scotland captain. For me it’s a boyhood dream.”

“Of course there’s massive responsibility, not just to this team, but to the entire country and Scotland fans throughout the world, but I’m really excited by it.”

Only four players in the match-day 22 have more than 20 caps.

Ross Ford will become Scotland’s most-capped hooker when he makes his 76th appearance and he is joined by Alasdair Dickinson and Geoff Cross in the front row.

Nick De Luca goes straight into the team to form a centre partnership with Horne, having received a late call-up and number seven Blair Cowan stays on having originally been selected for the first two games of the tour only.

Duncan Weir, the first-choice number 10 throughout this season’s Six Nations, starts at fly-half, with Tom Heathcote providing cover on the bench.

“What we’ve seen from previous games on the tour has been a desire to play,” said head coach Vern Cotter.

“Mistakes have crept into our game because we haven’t spent much time together. I’ve been pleased with the energy and desire to score tries but not happy with the execution.”

“I’m looking to them to bring that same energy and desire to carry the ball and secure opportunities and hopefully fresh legs can help.”

“I need to see what players are doing. We have to show teeth. We have to be able to attack from anywhere and we have to be able to dictate the pace and tempo of games. It’s a challenge.”

Back-row forward David Denton was selected for the Tests against Argentina and South Africa but has not recovered sufficiently from a concussion suffered in Edinburgh’s final game of the season and did not travel.

Scotland have won their last three Tests on Argentine soil, once in 2008 and twice in 2010.

Scotland: 15 Stuart Hogg, 14 Sean Maitland, 13 Nick De Luca, 12 Peter Horne, 11 Tommy Seymour, 10 Duncan Weir, 9 Grayson Hart, 1 Alasdair Dickinson, 2 Ross Ford, 3 Geoff Cross, 4 Jonny Gray, 5 Grant Gilchrist (Captain), 6 Robert Harley, 7 Blair Cowan, 8 Kieran Low
Replacements: 16 Pat MacArthur, 17 Gordon Reid, 18 Jon Welsh, 19 Tim Swinson, 20 Chris Fusaro, 21 Henry Pyrgos, 22 Tom Heathcote, 23 Dougie Fife.