diff --git a/solr/CHANGES.txt b/solr/CHANGES.txt
index 682b793f5aa..e5059903e01 100644
--- a/solr/CHANGES.txt
+++ b/solr/CHANGES.txt
@@ -139,6 +139,8 @@ Bug Fixes
 * SOLR-4915: The root cause should be returned to the user when a SolrCore create call fails.
   (Mark Miller)
 
+* SOLR-4925 : Collection create throws NPE when 'numShards' param is missing (Noble Paul)
+
 Other Changes
 ----------------------
 
diff --git a/solr/core/src/java/org/apache/solr/cloud/OverseerCollectionProcessor.java b/solr/core/src/java/org/apache/solr/cloud/OverseerCollectionProcessor.java
index 5b83f63f1fb..23c9771168a 100644
--- a/solr/core/src/java/org/apache/solr/cloud/OverseerCollectionProcessor.java
+++ b/solr/core/src/java/org/apache/solr/cloud/OverseerCollectionProcessor.java
@@ -779,7 +779,7 @@ public class OverseerCollectionProcessor implements Runnable, ClosableThread {
       throws Exception {
     String str = message.getStr(key);
     try {
-      return str == null ? def : Integer.parseInt(str);
+      return str == null ? def : Integer.valueOf(str);
     } catch (Exception ex) {
       SolrException.log(log, "Could not parse " + key, ex);
       throw ex;