diff --git a/hack/local-up-cluster.sh b/hack/local-up-cluster.sh
index 02d19999627..d5e187bd0fc 100755
--- a/hack/local-up-cluster.sh
+++ b/hack/local-up-cluster.sh
@@ -49,6 +49,17 @@ CGROUP_ROOT=${CGROUP_ROOT:-""}
 # owner of client certs, default to current user if not specified
 USER=${USER:-$(whoami)}
 
+# required for cni installation
+CNI_CONFIG_DIR=${CNI_CONFIG_DIR:-/etc/cni/net.d}
+CNI_PLUGINS_VERSION=${CNI_PLUGINS_VERSION:-"v1.0.1"}
+CNI_TARGETARCH=${CNI_TARGETARCH:-amd64}
+CNI_PLUGINS_TARBALL="${CNI_PLUGINS_VERSION}/cni-plugins-linux-${CNI_TARGETARCH}-${CNI_PLUGINS_VERSION}.tgz"
+CNI_PLUGINS_URL="https://github.com/containernetworking/plugins/releases/download/${CNI_PLUGINS_TARBALL}"
+CNI_PLUGINS_AMD64_SHA256SUM=${CNI_PLUGINS_AMD64_SHA256SUM:-"5238fbb2767cbf6aae736ad97a7aa29167525dcd405196dfbc064672a730d3cf"}
+CNI_PLUGINS_ARM64_SHA256SUM=${CNI_PLUGINS_ARM64_SHA256SUM:-"2d4528c45bdd0a8875f849a75082bc4eafe95cb61f9bcc10a6db38a031f67226"}
+CNI_PLUGINS_PPC64LE_SHA256SUM=${CNI_PLUGINS_PPC64LE_SHA256SUM:-"f078e33067e6daaef3a3a5010d6440f2464b7973dec3ca0b5d5be22fdcb1fd96"}
+CNI_PLUGINS_S390X_SHA256SUM=${CNI_PLUGINS_S390X_SHA256SUM:-"468d33e16440d9ca4395c6bb2d5b71b35ae4a4df26301e4da85ac70c5ce56822"}
+
 # enables testing eviction scenarios locally.
 EVICTION_HARD=${EVICTION_HARD:-"memory.available<100Mi,nodefs.available<10%,nodefs.inodesFree<5%"}
 EVICTION_SOFT=${EVICTION_SOFT:-""}
@@ -1029,6 +1040,62 @@ function parse_eviction {
   done
 }
 
+function install_cni {
+  echo "Installing CNI plugin binaries ..." \
+    && curl -sSL --retry 5 --output /tmp/cni."${CNI_TARGETARCH}".tgz "${CNI_PLUGINS_URL}" \
+    && echo "${CNI_PLUGINS_AMD64_SHA256SUM}  /tmp/cni.amd64.tgz" | tee /tmp/cni.sha256 \
+    && sha256sum --ignore-missing -c /tmp/cni.sha256 \
+    && rm -f /tmp/cni.sha256 \
+    && mkdir -p /opt/cni/bin \
+    && tar -C /opt/cni/bin -xzvf /tmp/cni."${CNI_TARGETARCH}".tgz \
+    && rm -rf /tmp/cni."${CNI_TARGETARCH}".tgz \
+    && find /opt/cni/bin -type f -not \( \
+         -iname host-local \
+         -o -iname bridge \
+         -o -iname portmap \
+         -o -iname loopback \
+      \) \
+      -delete
+
+  # containerd 1.4.12 installed by docker in kubekins supports CNI version 0.4.0
+  echo "Configuring cni"
+  mkdir -p "$CNI_CONFIG_DIR"
+  cat << EOF | tee "$CNI_CONFIG_DIR"/10-containerd-net.conflist
+{
+  "cniVersion": "0.4.0",
+  "name": "containerd-net",
+  "plugins": [
+    {
+      "type": "bridge",
+      "bridge": "cni0",
+      "isGateway": true,
+      "ipMasq": true,
+      "promiscMode": true,
+      "ipam": {
+        "type": "host-local",
+        "ranges": [
+          [{
+            "subnet": "10.88.0.0/16"
+          }],
+          [{
+            "subnet": "2001:4860:4860::/64"
+          }]
+        ],
+        "routes": [
+          { "dst": "0.0.0.0/0" },
+          { "dst": "::/0" }
+        ]
+      }
+    },
+    {
+      "type": "portmap",
+      "capabilities": {"portMappings": true}
+    }
+  ]
+}
+EOF
+}
+
 # If we are running in the CI, we need a few more things before we can start
 if [[ "${KUBETEST_IN_DOCKER:-}" == "true" ]]; then
   echo "Preparing to test ..."
@@ -1044,6 +1111,18 @@ if [[ "${KUBETEST_IN_DOCKER:-}" == "true" ]]; then
 
   # kubekins has a special directory for docker root
   DOCKER_ROOT="/docker-graph"
+
+  # to use docker installed containerd as kubelet container runtime
+  # we need to enable cri and install cni
+  # install cni for docker in docker
+  install_cni 
+
+  # enable cri for docker in docker
+  echo "enable cri"
+  echo "DOCKER_OPTS=\"\${DOCKER_OPTS} --cri-containerd\"" >> /etc/default/docker
+
+  echo "restarting docker"
+  service docker restart
 fi
 
 # validate that etcd is: not running, in path, and has minimum required version.