Android : Gradle connectedAndroidTest Null Pointer Exception

I'm executing the following test using Android Gradle plugin. However the following test fails with a NPE at getContext(). I appreciate if someone could help me out with the problem

 public class AddTaskManagerTest extends AndroidTestCase {

    AddTaskManager manager = null;

    protected void setUp() throws Exception {
        super.setUp();
        manager = new AddTaskManager(getContext());
    }
}