diff --git a/staging/src/k8s.io/kubectl/pkg/cmd/debug/debug.go b/staging/src/k8s.io/kubectl/pkg/cmd/debug/debug.go
index 9565a1c8298..31589b1eb3f 100644
--- a/staging/src/k8s.io/kubectl/pkg/cmd/debug/debug.go
+++ b/staging/src/k8s.io/kubectl/pkg/cmd/debug/debug.go
@@ -119,7 +119,7 @@ func NewCmdDebug(f cmdutil.Factory, streams genericclioptions.IOStreams) *cobra.
 func addDebugFlags(cmd *cobra.Command, opt *DebugOptions) {
 	cmd.Flags().BoolVar(&opt.ArgsOnly, "arguments-only", opt.ArgsOnly, i18n.T("If specified, everything after -- will be passed to the new container as Args instead of Command."))
 	cmd.Flags().BoolVar(&opt.Attach, "attach", opt.Attach, i18n.T("If true, wait for the Pod to start running, and then attach to the Pod as if 'kubectl attach ...' were called.  Default false, unless '-i/--stdin' is set, in which case the default is true."))
-	cmd.Flags().StringVar(&opt.Container, "container", opt.Container, i18n.T("Container name to use for debug container."))
+	cmd.Flags().StringVarP(&opt.Container, "container", "c", opt.Container, i18n.T("Container name to use for debug container."))
 	cmd.Flags().StringToString("env", nil, i18n.T("Environment variables to set in the container."))
 	cmd.Flags().StringVar(&opt.Image, "image", opt.Image, i18n.T("Container image to use for debug container."))
 	cmd.MarkFlagRequired("image")