diff --git a/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/percolator/TTLPercolatorTests.java b/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/percolator/TTLPercolatorTests.java
index 2cfd711787f..af800643e8f 100644
--- a/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/percolator/TTLPercolatorTests.java
+++ b/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/percolator/TTLPercolatorTests.java
@@ -51,6 +51,10 @@ public class TTLPercolatorTests extends ElasticsearchIntegrationTest {
 
     private static final long PURGE_INTERVAL = 200;
 
+    @Override
+    protected void beforeIndexDeletion() {
+    }
+
     @Override
     protected Settings nodeSettings(int nodeOrdinal) {
         return settingsBuilder()
diff --git a/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/river/RiverTests.java b/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/river/RiverTests.java
index 6587ca84c72..1a3e0e70168 100644
--- a/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/river/RiverTests.java
+++ b/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/river/RiverTests.java
@@ -43,6 +43,10 @@ import static org.hamcrest.Matchers.equalTo;
 @AwaitsFix(bugUrl="occasionally fails apparently due to synchronous mappings updates")
 public class RiverTests extends ElasticsearchIntegrationTest {
 
+    @Override
+    protected void beforeIndexDeletion() {
+    }
+
     @Test
     public void testRiverStart() throws Exception {
         startAndCheckRiverIsStarted("dummy-river-test");
diff --git a/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/test/ElasticsearchIntegrationTest.java b/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/test/ElasticsearchIntegrationTest.java
index 6c6e9138596..a85092473f0 100644
--- a/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/test/ElasticsearchIntegrationTest.java
+++ b/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/test/ElasticsearchIntegrationTest.java
@@ -642,7 +642,7 @@ public abstract class ElasticsearchIntegrationTest extends ElasticsearchTestCase
                     }
                     ensureClusterSizeConsistency();
                     ensureClusterStateConsistency();
-                    cluster().beforeIndexDeletion();
+                    beforeIndexDeletion();
                     cluster().wipe(); // wipe after to make sure we fail in the test that didn't ack the delete
                     if (afterClass || currentClusterScope == Scope.TEST) {
                         cluster().close();
@@ -665,6 +665,10 @@ public abstract class ElasticsearchIntegrationTest extends ElasticsearchTestCase
         }
     }
 
+    protected void beforeIndexDeletion() {
+        cluster().beforeIndexDeletion();
+    }
+
     public static TestCluster cluster() {
         return currentCluster;
     }
diff --git a/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/test/InternalTestCluster.java b/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/test/InternalTestCluster.java
index 9c3296f635b..1ce5b7e3066 100644
--- a/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/test/InternalTestCluster.java
+++ b/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/test/InternalTestCluster.java
@@ -971,6 +971,11 @@ public final class InternalTestCluster extends TestCluster {
 
     @Override
     public void beforeIndexDeletion() {
+        // Check that the operations counter on index shard has reached 1.
+        // The assumption here is that after a test there are no ongoing write operations.
+        // test that have ongoing write operations after the test (for example because ttl is used
+        // and not all docs have been purged after the test) and inherit from
+        // ElasticsearchIntegrationTest must override beforeIndexDeletion() to avoid failures.
         assertShardIndexCounter();
     }