diff --git a/lucene/queryparser/src/java/org/apache/lucene/queryparser/xml/CoreParser.java b/lucene/queryparser/src/java/org/apache/lucene/queryparser/xml/CoreParser.java
index 2dd00971659..98a878f8877 100644
--- a/lucene/queryparser/src/java/org/apache/lucene/queryparser/xml/CoreParser.java
+++ b/lucene/queryparser/src/java/org/apache/lucene/queryparser/xml/CoreParser.java
@@ -33,6 +33,7 @@ import java.io.InputStream;
  */
 public class CoreParser implements QueryBuilder {
 
+  protected String defaultField;
   protected Analyzer analyzer;
   protected QueryParser parser;
   protected QueryBuilderFactory queryFactory;
@@ -59,6 +60,7 @@ public class CoreParser implements QueryBuilder {
   }
 
   protected CoreParser(String defaultField, Analyzer analyzer, QueryParser parser) {
+    this.defaultField = defaultField;
     this.analyzer = analyzer;
     this.parser = parser;