diff --git a/tests/integration/replication.tcl b/tests/integration/replication.tcl
index 3609ae483..4e4b39a6a 100644
--- a/tests/integration/replication.tcl
+++ b/tests/integration/replication.tcl
@@ -530,8 +530,7 @@ test {diskless loading short read} {
                     $master multi
                     $master client kill type replica
                     $master set asdf asdf
-                    # the side effect of resizing the backlog is that it is flushed (16k is the min size)
-                    $master config set repl-backlog-size [expr {16384 + $i}]
+                    $master debug truncate-repl-backlog
                     $master exec
                 }
                 # wait for loading to stop (fail)