diff --git a/test/core/end2end/fuzzers/api_fuzzer.c b/test/core/end2end/fuzzers/api_fuzzer.c
index f9e74310da31333b89a0ef1f9b9f14406470fb01..557fd5febd906a51aec71e5f9765f358b9dd7b81 100644
--- a/test/core/end2end/fuzzers/api_fuzzer.c
+++ b/test/core/end2end/fuzzers/api_fuzzer.c
@@ -730,6 +730,7 @@ int LLVMFuzzerTestOneInput(const uint8_t *data, size_t size) {
       // send a ping on a channel
       case 18: {
         if (g_channel != NULL) {
+          pending_pings++;
           grpc_channel_ping(g_channel, cq,
                             create_validator(decrement, &pending_pings), NULL);
         } else {