diff --git a/src/Interpreters/ClusterProxy/executeQuery.cpp b/src/Interpreters/ClusterProxy/executeQuery.cpp
index 4a637db3887..7207efd9ef6 100644
--- a/src/Interpreters/ClusterProxy/executeQuery.cpp
+++ b/src/Interpreters/ClusterProxy/executeQuery.cpp
@@ -488,12 +488,12 @@ void executeQueryWithParallelReplicas(
         shard_num = column->getUInt(0);
     }
 
-    const auto shard_count = not_optimized_cluster->getShardCount();
     ClusterPtr new_cluster = not_optimized_cluster;
     /// if got valid shard_num from query initiator, then parallel replicas scope is the specified shard
     /// shards are numbered in order of appearance in the cluster config
     if (shard_num > 0)
     {
+        const auto shard_count = not_optimized_cluster->getShardCount();
         if (shard_num > shard_count)
             throw Exception(
                 ErrorCodes::LOGICAL_ERROR,
@@ -702,6 +702,43 @@ void executeQueryWithParallelReplicasCustomKey(
         context, query_info.query, storage_id.getDatabaseName(), storage_id.getTableName(), /*table_function_ptr=*/nullptr);
     executeQueryWithParallelReplicasCustomKey(query_plan, storage_id, query_info, columns, snapshot, processed_stage, header, context);
 }
+
+bool canUseParallelReplicasOnInitiator(const ContextPtr & context)
+{
+    if (!context->canUseParallelReplicasOnInitiator())
+        return false;
+
+    auto cluster = context->getClusterForParallelReplicas();
+    if (cluster->getShardCount() == 1)
+        return cluster->getShardsInfo()[0].getAllNodeCount() > 1;
+
+    /// parallel replicas with distributed table
+    auto scalars = context->hasQueryContext() ? context->getQueryContext()->getScalars() : Scalars{};
+    UInt64 shard_num = 0; /// shard_num is 1-based, so 0 - no shard specified
+    const auto it = scalars.find("_shard_num");
+    if (it != scalars.end())
+    {
+        const Block & block = it->second;
+        const auto & column = block.safeGetByPosition(0).column;
+        shard_num = column->getUInt(0);
+    }
+    if (shard_num > 0)
+    {
+        const auto shard_count = cluster->getShardCount();
+        if (shard_num > shard_count)
+            throw Exception(
+                ErrorCodes::LOGICAL_ERROR,
+                "Shard number is greater than shard count: shard_num={} shard_count={} cluster={}",
+                shard_num,
+                shard_count,
+                cluster->getName());
+
+        return cluster->getShardsInfo().at(shard_num - 1).getAllNodeCount() > 1;
+    }
+
+    return false;
+}
+
 }
 
 }
diff --git a/src/Interpreters/ClusterProxy/executeQuery.h b/src/Interpreters/ClusterProxy/executeQuery.h
index 2c63b7b89f0..2a21f3e8255 100644
--- a/src/Interpreters/ClusterProxy/executeQuery.h
+++ b/src/Interpreters/ClusterProxy/executeQuery.h
@@ -58,6 +58,8 @@ using AdditionalShardFilterGenerator = std::function<ASTPtr(uint64_t)>;
 AdditionalShardFilterGenerator
 getShardFilterGeneratorForCustomKey(const Cluster & cluster, ContextPtr context, const ColumnsDescription & columns);
 
+bool canUseParallelReplicasOnInitiator(const ContextPtr & context);
+
 /// Execute a distributed query, creating a query plan, from which the query pipeline can be built.
 /// `stream_factory` object encapsulates the logic of creating plans for a different type of query
 /// (currently SELECT, DESCRIBE).
diff --git a/src/Planner/PlannerJoinTree.cpp b/src/Planner/PlannerJoinTree.cpp
index 4c21f0d00cc..c1eb2b48045 100644
--- a/src/Planner/PlannerJoinTree.cpp
+++ b/src/Planner/PlannerJoinTree.cpp
@@ -920,7 +920,7 @@ JoinTreeQueryPlan buildQueryPlanForTableExpression(QueryTreeNodePtr table_expres
                             query_plan = std::move(query_plan_parallel_replicas);
                         }
                     }
-                    else if (query_context->canUseParallelReplicasOnInitiator())
+                    else if (ClusterProxy::canUseParallelReplicasOnInitiator(query_context))
                     {
                         // (1) find read step
                         QueryPlan::Node * node = query_plan.getRootNode();