diff --git a/test/distrib/python/test_packages.sh b/test/distrib/python/test_packages.sh
index 4e1e6dbc94f..e9f494310d6 100755
--- a/test/distrib/python/test_packages.sh
+++ b/test/distrib/python/test_packages.sh
@@ -37,11 +37,11 @@ TESTING_ARCHIVES=("$EXTERNAL_GIT_ROOT"/input_artifacts/grpcio-testing-[0-9]*.tar
 VIRTUAL_ENV=$(mktemp -d)
 virtualenv "$VIRTUAL_ENV"
 PYTHON=$VIRTUAL_ENV/bin/python
-"$PYTHON" -m pip install --upgrade six pip
+"$PYTHON" -m pip install --upgrade six pip wheel
 
 function validate_wheel_hashes() {
   for file in "$@"; do
-    "$PYTHON" -m wheel unpack "$file" --dest-dir /tmp || return 1
+    "$PYTHON" -m wheel unpack "$file" -d /tmp || return 1
   done
   return 0
 }