diff --git a/src/core/lib/iomgr/ev_epollex_linux.c b/src/core/lib/iomgr/ev_epollex_linux.c
index 7cb6085e25517bc1f7a92c86aad3ee004efa7abc..cb6814e89e9cf9d674e7d32ab7ea0a88d76bba03 100644
--- a/src/core/lib/iomgr/ev_epollex_linux.c
+++ b/src/core/lib/iomgr/ev_epollex_linux.c
@@ -1476,8 +1476,6 @@ static const grpc_event_engine_vtable vtable = {
 
 const grpc_event_engine_vtable *grpc_init_epollex_linux(
     bool explicitly_requested) {
-  if (!explicitly_requested) return NULL;
-
   if (!grpc_has_wakeup_fd()) {
     return NULL;
   }
diff --git a/tools/run_tests/run_tests.py b/tools/run_tests/run_tests.py
index 83a83948a57920cc0fd91956750e3c9a0e4c28e2..ddc44635d02a94383d01095ec9958e50f09cfffd 100755
--- a/tools/run_tests/run_tests.py
+++ b/tools/run_tests/run_tests.py
@@ -75,7 +75,7 @@ _FORCE_ENVIRON_FOR_WRAPPERS = {
 
 
 _POLLING_STRATEGIES = {
-  'linux': ['epollsig', 'poll', 'poll-cv']
+  'linux': ['epollex', 'epollsig', 'poll', 'poll-cv']
 # TODO(ctiller, sreecha): enable epoll1, epollex, epoll-thread-pool
 }