diff --git a/cmd/template/cluster/flag.go b/cmd/template/cluster/flag.go
index 0e5cb504a..a7625c791 100644
--- a/cmd/template/cluster/flag.go
+++ b/cmd/template/cluster/flag.go
@@ -313,6 +313,8 @@ func (f *flag) Init(cmd *cobra.Command) {
 	_ = cmd.Flags().MarkHidden(flagGCPMachineDeploymentReplicas)
 	_ = cmd.Flags().MarkHidden(flagGCPMachineDeploymentInstanceType)
 
+	_ = cmd.Flags().MarkHidden(flagVSphereImageTemplate)
+
 	_ = cmd.Flags().MarkHidden(flagClusterCatalog)
 	_ = cmd.Flags().MarkHidden(flagClusterVersion)
 	_ = cmd.Flags().MarkHidden(flagDefaultAppsCatalog)
@@ -434,10 +436,17 @@ func (f *flag) Validate(cmd *cobra.Command) error {
 			if !validateCIDR(f.VSphere.ServiceLoadBalancerCIDR) {
 				return microerror.Maskf(invalidFlagError, "--%s must be a valid CIDR", flagVSphereServiceLoadBalancerCIDR)
 			}
-			ver, err := cmd.Flags().GetString(flagKubernetesVersion)
-			if err != nil || ver == "" {
+			if !cmd.Flags().Changed(flagKubernetesVersion) {
 				f.KubernetesVersion = defaultVSphereKubernetesVersion
 			}
+			// todo: add validation for flagVSphereImageTemplate
+			placeholders := strings.Count(f.VSphere.ImageTemplate, "%s")
+			if placeholders > 1 {
+				return microerror.Maskf(invalidFlagError, "--%s must contain at most one occurrence of '%%s' where k8s version will be injected", flagVSphereImageTemplate)
+			}
+			if placeholders == 1 {
+				f.VSphere.ImageTemplate = fmt.Sprintf(f.VSphere.ImageTemplate, f.KubernetesVersion)
+			}
 			if f.VSphere.Worker.Replicas < 1 {
 				return microerror.Maskf(invalidFlagError, "--%s must be greater than 0", flagVSphereWorkerReplicas)
 			}
diff --git a/cmd/template/cluster/provider/capv.go b/cmd/template/cluster/provider/capv.go
index 52ddde098..df4d82130 100644
--- a/cmd/template/cluster/provider/capv.go
+++ b/cmd/template/cluster/provider/capv.go
@@ -184,7 +184,7 @@ func getMachineTemplate(machineTemplate *VSphereMachineTemplate, clusterConfig *
 		NumCPUs:      machineTemplate.NumCPUs,
 		MemoryMiB:    machineTemplate.MemoryMiB,
 		ResourcePool: config.ResourcePool,
-		Template:     fmt.Sprintf(config.ImageTemplate, clusterConfig.KubernetesVersion),
+		Template:     config.ImageTemplate,
 	}
 }