diff --git a/go/vt/sqlparser/normalizer.go b/go/vt/sqlparser/normalizer.go
index a2ac08337ab..ac223477e27 100644
--- a/go/vt/sqlparser/normalizer.go
+++ b/go/vt/sqlparser/normalizer.go
@@ -88,6 +88,9 @@ func (nz *normalizer) WalkSelect(node SQLNode) (bool, error) {
 		// Common node types that never contain SQLVals or ListArgs but create a lot of object
 		// allocations.
 		return false, nil
+	case OrderBy, GroupBy:
+		// do not make a bind var for order by column_position
+		return false, nil
 	}
 	return true, nil
 }
diff --git a/go/vt/sqlparser/normalizer_test.go b/go/vt/sqlparser/normalizer_test.go
index 7aa24814d55..b102b0ec2ad 100644
--- a/go/vt/sqlparser/normalizer_test.go
+++ b/go/vt/sqlparser/normalizer_test.go
@@ -127,6 +127,16 @@ func TestNormalize(t *testing.T) {
 		in:      "update a set v1 = b'11'",
 		outstmt: "update a set v1 = B'11'",
 		outbv:   map[string]*querypb.BindVariable{},
+	}, {
+		// ORDER BY column_position
+		in:      "select a, b from t order by 1 asc",
+		outstmt: "select a, b from t order by 1 asc",
+		outbv:   map[string]*querypb.BindVariable{},
+	}, {
+		// ORDER BY variable
+		in:      "select a, b from t order by c asc",
+		outstmt: "select a, b from t order by c asc",
+		outbv:   map[string]*querypb.BindVariable{},
 	}, {
 		// Values up to len 256 will reuse.
 		in:      fmt.Sprintf("select * from t where v1 = '%256s' and v2 = '%256s'", "a", "a"),