diff --git a/tools/internal_ci/linux/grpc_xds_bazel_test_in_docker.sh b/tools/internal_ci/linux/grpc_xds_bazel_test_in_docker.sh
index c3a4b91f873..119fb746dbf 100755
--- a/tools/internal_ci/linux/grpc_xds_bazel_test_in_docker.sh
+++ b/tools/internal_ci/linux/grpc_xds_bazel_test_in_docker.sh
@@ -28,7 +28,9 @@ VIRTUAL_ENV=$(mktemp -d)
 python3 -m virtualenv "$VIRTUAL_ENV" -p python3
 PYTHON="$VIRTUAL_ENV"/bin/python
 "$PYTHON" -m pip install --upgrade pip==19.3.1
-"$PYTHON" -m pip install --upgrade grpcio grpcio-tools google-api-python-client google-auth-httplib2 oauth2client xds-protos
+# TODO(sergiitk): Unpin grpcio-tools when a version of xds-protos
+#   compatible with protobuf 4.X is uploaded to PyPi.
+"$PYTHON" -m pip install --upgrade grpcio grpcio-tools==1.48.1 google-api-python-client google-auth-httplib2 oauth2client xds-protos
 
 # Prepare generated Python code.
 TOOLS_DIR=tools/run_tests