Scotland will be without Napoli midfielder Scott McTominay, 29, who missed this summer’s World Cup after undergoing minor heart surgery.
Of the 28 players named, 14 were part of the World Cup squad.
Retained are goalkeeper Gunn and defender Kelly, along with defenders Jack Hendry, Aaron Hickey, Scott McKenna, Nathan Patterson, Andy Robertson and Kieran Tierney, midfielders Ryan Christie, Lewis Ferguson, John McGinn and Kenny McLean, and forwards Findlay Curtis and Ben Gannon-Doak.
Craig Gordon has retired, Grant Hanley has returned to fitness at Hibernian, and John Souttar remains unavailable with reports linking him to Aris Thessaloniki.
Defenders Dominic Hyam and Anthony Ralston, midfielder Tyler Fletcher and forwards Lyndon Dykes, George Hirst and Ross Stewart have been omitted.
Since being appointed as Clarke’s successor, with the former Kilmarnock manager having resigned after Scotland failed to qualify for a major tournament knockout stage for the first time, Pocognoli has been expected to freshen up an aging squad.
Pocognoli takes charge for the first time on Saturday, 26 September, when Scotland host Slovenia in their Nations League B opener, before facing Switzerland three days later.
A trip to North Macedonia on 3 October follows, with a home match against Slovenia three days after that.
Pocognoli said: “We have a good mix between experienced players, new faces, first cap players, young lads, players who are back.”
“We have a lot of leaders, we have a lot of players who know how to win games.”
“We want to be ambitious in this Nations League. We have to use this Nations League to try things, to experiment things but the most important is to be ambitious.”