how do jayasuriya and gilchrist get into consideration as the 2nd or 3rd best one day openers, that too all time? when they got going, they were fantastic but those efforts were few and far in between, those two were incredibly inconsistent at best.
australia could afford to carry gilly on his off days (and he still was a competent keeper so offered a lot of value to the team anyway) because of their incredible batting depth during that era and sri lanka had to carry sanath on his off days because they didn't have a better option...there were so many batsmen who consistently produced throughout their career at the top of the order who would rank above those two on any all-time list...
Historically, there were generally two types of ODI opener - the accumulating high averaging opener and the dasher. Traditionally the accumulator would average in the 40s and the dasher in the mid 30s, but at a strike rate of around 90.
The thing that makes Tendulkar unique is that he was both - the accumulator and the dasher all rolled into one package.
The reason Jayasuriya and Gilchrist get talked about a lot in this context is that they are both in the dasher mould, but also have a secondary skill to go with it.
Batting has gotten a lot easier in recent times so it's easy to forget that historically the middle order have been the most important batsmen in an ODI side since the opposition was usually going to be able to get a wicket or two in the first fifteen overs. So the ATG XIs you see will generally focus on getting the best pure batsmen into the middle order. And when that middle order contains Viv, Kohli and De Villiers it's easy to see why.
So having an opener with a secondary skill gives you more flexibility in your team. You can play Bevan and Klusener at 6 and 7 with Gilly opening, which gives you the strongest batting lineup without sacrificing bowling on larger grounds or pace friendly decks. You can play Dhoni and Symonds at 6 and 7 to exploit spinning conditions and smaller grounds if you have Jayasuriya opening.
Because ODI cricket is less about "this batsman averages more than this other batsman therefore they are better" than test cricket, picking a winning team requires understanding where you're going to get your fifth bowler from, where and how you bat your keeper, how deep you bat and how good players are in the field.
There are heaps of great openers in ODI history:
High average:
Haynes
Greenidge
Turner
Anwar
M Waugh
Hayden
Smith
Ganguly
Amla
Rohit
High SR:
Jayasuriya
Gilchrist
Sehwag
McCullum
Gayle
Warner
De Kock
Bairstow
Both/balanced:
Tendulkar
Watson
How do you separate them? Look at their roles and decide who fits best into your team. In an ATG team I'd probably rather someone who scores quickly than someone who acts as an anchor because I want the number 3-6 to get a chance to bat as well. So in the "high SR" list, Jaya is a bone fide all rounder, Gilchrist is an ATG keeper and the other options aren't really quite as good except maybe Watson as a fast bowling all rounder who is the only other truly balanced option.
