diff --git a/t/t5000-tar-tree.sh b/t/t5000-tar-tree.sh
index c2023b1a3d..519cc34be2 100755
--- a/t/t5000-tar-tree.sh
+++ b/t/t5000-tar-tree.sh
@@ -25,8 +25,6 @@ commit id embedding:
 '
 
 . ./test-lib.sh
-GZIP=${GZIP:-gzip}
-GUNZIP=${GUNZIP:-gzip -d}
 
 SUBSTFORMAT=%H%n
 
@@ -39,6 +37,8 @@ test_lazy_prereq TAR_NEEDS_PAX_FALLBACK '
 	)
 '
 
+test_lazy_prereq GZIP 'gzip --version'
+
 get_pax_header() {
 	file=$1
 	header=$2=
@@ -275,12 +275,6 @@ test_expect_success 'only enabled filters are available remotely' '
 	test_cmp remote.bar config.bar
 '
 
-if $GZIP --version >/dev/null 2>&1; then
-	test_set_prereq GZIP
-else
-	say "Skipping some tar.gz tests because gzip not found"
-fi
-
 test_expect_success GZIP 'git archive --format=tgz' '
 	git archive --format=tgz HEAD >j.tgz
 '
@@ -300,14 +294,8 @@ test_expect_success GZIP 'infer tgz from .tar.gz filename' '
 	test_cmp j.tgz j3.tar.gz
 '
 
-if $GUNZIP --version >/dev/null 2>&1; then
-	test_set_prereq GUNZIP
-else
-	say "Skipping some tar.gz tests because gunzip was not found"
-fi
-
-test_expect_success GZIP,GUNZIP 'extract tgz file' '
-	$GUNZIP -c <j.tgz >j.tar &&
+test_expect_success GZIP 'extract tgz file' '
+	gzip -d -c <j.tgz >j.tar &&
 	test_cmp b.tar j.tar
 '