Could not determine java version from '14.0.1'

Environment
git-bash shell on Windows 10

Spring boot project is using gradle 4.4

from project root running ./gradlew --version gives this error “Could not determine java version from ‘14.0.1’”

Windows PATH and JAVA_HOME are pointing to Open JDK 14 and gradle.properties in $USER_HOME/.gradle has org.gradle.java.home=C:/Program Files/Java/jdk1.8.0_202

per gradle doc gradle should use JAVA_HOME from this properties file. Specifying it on the command line like this,

./gradlew -Dorg.gradle.java.home=C:/Program Files/Java/jdk1.8.0_202 …

gives the same error.

Changing the PATH for current shell to point to JDK8 gives the same error.

The only way I can get ./gradlew --version to work is to set JAVA_HOME to JDK8 for the current shell before running the command.

Due to project constraints cannot upgrade gradle for the project. Please help!