diff --git a/pylib/cassandra-cqlsh-tests.sh b/pylib/cassandra-cqlsh-tests.sh
index 951f69a61a..ebdba4efaa 100755
--- a/pylib/cassandra-cqlsh-tests.sh
+++ b/pylib/cassandra-cqlsh-tests.sh
@@ -73,6 +73,8 @@ fi
 set -e # enable immediate exit if venv setup fails
 virtualenv --python=$PYTHON_VERSION venv
 source venv/bin/activate
+# 3.11 needs the newest pip
+curl -sS https://bootstrap.pypa.io/get-pip.py | $PYTHON_VERSION
 
 pip install -r ${CASSANDRA_DIR}/pylib/requirements.txt
 pip freeze