diff --git a/src/php/ext/grpc/call.c b/src/php/ext/grpc/call.c
index c4997f720d1..c71fa8a9e81 100644
--- a/src/php/ext/grpc/call.c
+++ b/src/php/ext/grpc/call.c
@@ -301,6 +301,11 @@ PHP_METHOD(Call, startBatch) {
                            "batch keys must be integers", 1 TSRMLS_CC);
       goto cleanup;
     }
+
+    ops[op_num].op = (grpc_op_type)index;
+    ops[op_num].flags = 0;
+    ops[op_num].reserved = NULL;
+
     switch(index) {
     case GRPC_OP_SEND_INITIAL_METADATA:
       if (!create_metadata_array(value, &metadata)) {
@@ -414,9 +419,6 @@ PHP_METHOD(Call, startBatch) {
                            "Unrecognized key in batch", 1 TSRMLS_CC);
       goto cleanup;
     }
-    ops[op_num].op = (grpc_op_type)index;
-    ops[op_num].flags = 0;
-    ops[op_num].reserved = NULL;
     op_num++;
   PHP_GRPC_HASH_FOREACH_END()