With Biggar and Anscombe missing, responsibility for wearing the fabled number 10 jersey could be handed to Sam Costelow.
His injury absence after the World Cup has allowed Scarlets team-mate Ioan Lloyd to prosper for his region, prompting an international recall, while Evans is also an option.
Callum Sheedy’s recent knee injury was not a factor in the Bristol fly-half being overlooked.
So can Costelow and Co cope with the pressure of Wales rugby’s most famous shirt and emulate the goal-kicking accuracy of Biggar and Halfpenny?
“That’s why we’ve thrown them into the deep end, we’ve got a chance to develop them,” said Gatland.
“It’s going to take time. We are pleased with Sam’s progression in the time he’s been with us, but he’s still got learnings.
“With Ioan it’s been difficult over the last couple of seasons nailing down a position. He’s played a lot of 10 and can cover 15 also. The important thing is to be playing regularly in one or two positions.
“We can spend time with Cai in terms of that 10 position, to give us an option, probably out of all the players he’s the one with the best goal-kicking stats, and got a big boot.
“We are probably lacking a bit currently with some of the quality we’ve lost from a kicking perspective.
“It’s going to take work from Neil Jenkins, working with those players and getting them up to speed.”
More consistency exists in the scrum-half department with established trio Tomos Williams, Gareth Davies and Kieran Hardy named.
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