diff --git a/packages/shell-api/src/explainable.ts b/packages/shell-api/src/explainable.ts
index 6287dce4d2..3105e1dad0 100644
--- a/packages/shell-api/src/explainable.ts
+++ b/packages/shell-api/src/explainable.ts
@@ -121,7 +121,7 @@ export default class Explainable extends ShellApiWithMongoClass {
     // This is the only one that currently lacks explicit driver support.
     return markAsExplainOutput(await this._collection._database._runCommand({
       explain: {
-        count: `${this._collection._database._name}.${this._collection._name}`,
+        count: `${this._collection._name}`,
         query,
         ...options
       },
diff --git a/packages/shell-api/src/integration.spec.ts b/packages/shell-api/src/integration.spec.ts
index 0d3c5a1e04..af75cf6e69 100644
--- a/packages/shell-api/src/integration.spec.ts
+++ b/packages/shell-api/src/integration.spec.ts
@@ -1270,6 +1270,7 @@ describe('Shell API (integration)', function() {
         const explained = await collection.explain().count();
         expect(explained).to.include.all.keys(['ok', 'serverInfo', 'queryPlanner']);
         expect(explained).to.not.include.any.keys(['executionStats']);
+        expect(explained.queryPlanner.namespace).to.equal(`${dbName}.${collectionName}`);
       });
 
       it('includes executionStats when requested', async() => {