diff --git a/x-pack/plugin/ilm/qa/multi-cluster/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/xpack/indexlifecycle/CCRIndexLifecycleIT.java b/x-pack/plugin/ilm/qa/multi-cluster/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/xpack/indexlifecycle/CCRIndexLifecycleIT.java
index eaabab6d033c0..f17f427b8c6c0 100644
--- a/x-pack/plugin/ilm/qa/multi-cluster/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/xpack/indexlifecycle/CCRIndexLifecycleIT.java
+++ b/x-pack/plugin/ilm/qa/multi-cluster/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/xpack/indexlifecycle/CCRIndexLifecycleIT.java
@@ -358,11 +358,7 @@ public void testCannotShrinkLeaderIndex() throws Exception {
                 changePolicyRequest.setEntity(changePolicyEntity);
                 assertOK(leaderClient.performRequest(changePolicyRequest));
 
-                index(leaderClient, indexName, "1");
-                assertDocumentExists(leaderClient, indexName, "1");
-
                 assertBusy(() -> {
-                    assertDocumentExists(client(), indexName, "1");
                     // Sanity check that following_index setting has been set, so that we can verify later that this setting has been unset:
                     assertThat(getIndexSetting(client(), indexName, "index.xpack.ccr.following_index"), equalTo("true"));
 
@@ -371,6 +367,20 @@ public void testCannotShrinkLeaderIndex() throws Exception {
                     assertILMPolicy(client(), indexName, policyName, "hot", "unfollow", "wait-for-indexing-complete");
                 });
 
+                // Index a bunch of documents and wait for them to be replicated
+                for (int i = 0; i < 50; i++) {
+                    index(leaderClient, indexName, Integer.toString(i));
+                }
+                assertBusy(() -> {
+                    for (int i = 0; i < 50; i++) {
+                        assertDocumentExists(client(), indexName, Integer.toString(i));
+                    }
+                });
+
+                // Then make sure both leader and follower are still both waiting
+                assertILMPolicy(leaderClient, indexName, policyName, "warm", "shrink", "wait-for-shard-history-leases");
+                assertILMPolicy(client(), indexName, policyName, "hot", "unfollow", "wait-for-indexing-complete");
+
                 // Manually set this to kick the process
                 updateIndexSettings(leaderClient, indexName, Settings.builder()
                     .put("index.lifecycle.indexing_complete", true)